Joel 1:2-12
Holman Christian Standard Bible
A Plague of Locusts
2 Hear this,(A) you elders;
listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days(B)
or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell your children about it,(C)
and let your children tell their children,
and their children the next generation.
4 What the devouring locust(D) has left,
the swarming locust has eaten;
what the swarming locust has left,
the young locust(E) has eaten;
and what the young locust has left,
the destroying locust(F) has eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards,(G) and weep;
wail, all you wine drinkers,
because of the sweet wine,
for it has been taken from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded My land,(H)
powerful and without number;
its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.(I)
7 It has devastated My grapevine
and splintered My fig tree.
It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away;
its branches have turned white.
8 Grieve like a young woman dressed in sackcloth,(J)
mourning for the husband of her youth.
9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off(K)
from the house of the Lord;
the priests, who are ministers of the Lord, mourn.(L)
10 The fields are destroyed;(M)
the land grieves;
indeed, the grain is destroyed;
the new wine is dried up;(N)
and the olive oil fails.(O)
11 Be ashamed, you farmers,(P)
wail, you vinedressers,[a]
over the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.(Q)
12 The grapevine is dried up,(R)
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate,(S) the date palm,(T) and the apple(U)—
all the trees of the orchard—have withered.
Indeed, human joy has dried up.(V)
Footnotes
- Joel 1:11 Or The farmers are dismayed, the vinedressers wail
Joel 1:2-12
Common English Bible
2 Hear this, elders;
pay attention, everyone in the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your days,
or in the days of your ancestors?[a]
3 Tell it to your children,
and have your children tell their children,
and their children tell their children.
4 What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten.
And what the hopping locust left,
the devouring locust has eaten.[b]
5 Wake up, you who drink too much, and weep.
Scream over the sweet wine,
all you wine drinkers,
because it is snatched from your mouth;
6 because a nation, powerful and beyond number,
has invaded my land.
Its teeth are like lions’ teeth;
its fangs are like those of a lioness.
7 It has destroyed my vines,
splintered my fig trees,
stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches have turned white.
8 Lament like a woman dressed in funeral clothing,
one who has lost the husband of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are gone from the Lord’s temple.
The priests and the Lord’s ministers mourn.
10 The fields are devastated,
the ground mourns;
for the grain is destroyed,
the new wine dries up,
the olive oil fails.
11 Be shocked, you farmers;
howl, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley,
for the crops of the field are destroyed.
12 The grapevine is dried up;
the fig tree withers.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple—
all the trees of the field are dried up.
Joy fades away from the people.[c]
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible