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The word of the class="small-caps" >Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
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An Invasion of Locusts
Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
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What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
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Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
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It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
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Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
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Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the class="small-caps" >Lord. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the class="small-caps" >Lord.
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Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
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A Call to Lamentation
Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
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Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the class="small-caps" >Lord your God, and cry out to the class="small-caps" >Lord.
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Alas for that day! For the day of the class="small-caps" >Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
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Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
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How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
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To you, class="small-caps" >Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
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Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
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An Army of Locusts
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the class="small-caps" >Lord is coming. It is close at hand—
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a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.
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Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.
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They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry.
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With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
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At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale.
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They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.
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They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks.
