JoelChapter 1
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1This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel. 2Hear 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 fathers? 3Tell your children about it.
Let your children tell their children.
And let their children tell the next generation. 4What the devouring locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the young locust has eaten.
What the young locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten. 5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you who drink wine!
Wail because of the sweet wine,
for it has been taken from your mouths. 6For a nation has invaded my land.
It is powerful, and there are too many to count.
Its teeth are the teeth of a lion.
Its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. 7It has ruined my grapevine
and broken my fig tree into splinters.
It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away.
The branches have turned white. 8Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,
grieving for the husband of her youth. 9Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off
from the house of the LORD.
The priests are mourning,
those who serve before the LORD. 10The field is ruined.
The land mourns.
For the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
and the oil is gone. 11Be in despair, you farmers!
Wail, you who tend the vines!
Wail over the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is lost. 12The grapevine is dried up.
The fig tree has withered.
The pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree—
all the trees of the orchard—have withered.
Surely people's joy has dried up. 13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests!
Wail, you who serve at the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who serve my God.
For grain offerings and drink offerings
are held back from the house of your God. 14Set apart a time to fast.
Call a holy gathering!
Gather the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the LORD your God.
And cry out to the LORD. 15Oh, what a terrible day!
For the Day of the LORD is near.
It will come like ruin from the Almighty. 16Hasn't the food been cut off right before our eyes?
Haven't joy and gladness been cut off
from the house of our God? 17The seeds lie dried up under the clods of dirt.
The storehouses are in ruins.
The barns are broken down,
for the grain has dried up. 18How the cattle groan!
The herds wander around confused,
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. 19To you, LORD, I call out.
For fire has burned up the open pastures.
Flames have burned all the trees of the field. 20Even the wild animals long for you,
for the streams of water have dried up.
Fire has burned up the open pastures.