The Devastation by Locusts

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

Tell your sons about it, And have your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.

What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.

Awake, you heavy drinkers, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, Because of the sweet wine, For it has been eliminated from your mouth.

It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree a stump. It has stripped them bare and hurled them away; Their branches have become white.

Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth For the groom of her youth.

The vine has dried up And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, joy has dried up From the sons of mankind.

Put on sackcloth And mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, You ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Have been withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord.

The seeds have dried up under their shovels; The storehouses have become desolate, The grain silos are ruined, Because the grain has dried up.

How the animals have groaned! The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep have suffered.

Even the animals of the field pant for You; For the stream beds of water are dried up, And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

The Terrible Visitation

Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord is coming; Indeed, it is near,

A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run.

With a noise as of chariots They leap about on the tops of the mountains, Like the crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble, Like a mighty people drawn up for battle.

They run like warriors, They climb the wall like soldiers; And each of them marches in line, Nor do they lose their way.

They storm the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter through the windows like a thief.

Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon become dark, And the stars lose their brightness.

And tear your heart and not merely your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in mercy And relenting of catastrophe.

Blow a trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and the nursing infants. Have the groom come out of his room And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, “Spare Your people, Lord, And do not make Your inheritance a disgrace, With the nations jeering at them. Why should those among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”

The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, And you will be satisfied in full with them; And I will never again make you a disgrace among the nations.

But I will remove the northern army far from you, And I will drive it into a dry and desolate land, Its advance guard into the eastern sea, And its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will ascend and its odor of decay will come up, Because it has done great things.”