1 I am Joel the son of Pethuel.
And this is the message
the Lord gave to me.
Locusts Cover the Land
2 Listen, you leaders
and everyone else
in the land.
Has anything like this
ever happened before?
3 Tell our children!
Let it be told
to our grandchildren
and their children too.
4 Swarm after swarm of locusts
has attacked our crops,
eating everything in sight.
5 Sober up, you drunkards!
Cry long and loud;
your wine supply is gone.
6 A powerful nation
with countless troops
has invaded our land.
They have the teeth and jaws
of powerful lions.
7 Our grapevines and fig trees
are stripped bare;
only naked branches remain.
8 Grieve like a young woman
mourning for the man
she was to marry.
9 Offerings of grain and wine
are no longer brought
to the Lord's temple.
His servants, the priests,
are deep in sorrow.
10 Barren fields mourn;
grain, grapes, and olives
are scorched and shriveled.
11 Mourn for our farms
and our vineyards!
There's no wheat or barley
growing in our fields.
12 Grapevines have dried up
and so has every tree—
figs and pomegranates,
date palms and apples.
All happiness has faded away.
Return to God
13 Mourn, you priests who serve
at the altar of my God.
Spend your days and nights
wearing sackcloth.
Offerings of grain and wine
are no longer brought
to the Lord's temple.
14 Tell the leaders and people
to come together
at the temple.
Order them to go without eating
and to pray sincerely.
15 We are in for trouble!
Soon the Lord All-Powerful
will bring disaster.
16 Our food is already gone;
there's no more celebrating
at the temple of our God.
17 Seeds dry up in the ground;
no harvest is possible.
Our barns are in bad shape,
with no grain
to store in them.
18 Our cattle wander aimlessly,
moaning for lack of pasture,
and sheep are suffering.
19 I cry out to you, Lord.
Grasslands and forests are eaten
by the scorching heat.
20 Wild animals have no water
because of you;
rivers and streams are dry,
and pastures are parched.
1 The worde of the Lord that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel. 2 Heare ye this, O Elders, and hearken ye all inhabitantes of the land, whether such a thing hath bene in your dayes, or yet in the dayes of your fathers. 3 Tell you your children of it, and let your children shew to their children, and their children to another generation. 4 That which is left of ye palmer worme, hath the grashopper eaten, and the residue of ye grashopper hath the canker worme eaten, and the residue of the canker worme hath the caterpiller eaten. 5 Awake ye drunkards, and weepe, and howle all ye drinkers of wine, because of the newe wine: for it shalbe pulled from your mouth. 6 Yea, a nation commeth vpon my lande, mightie, and without nomber, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lyon, and he hath the iawes of a great lyon. 7 He maketh my vine waste, and pilleth off the barke of my figge tree: he maketh it bare, and casteth it downe: ye branches therof are made white. 8 Mourne like a virgine girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meate offring, and the drinke offring is cut off from the House of the Lord: the Priests the Lords ministers mourne. 10 The fielde is wasted: the lande mourneth: for the corne is destroyed: the new wine is dried vp, and the oyle is decayed. 11 Be ye ashamed, O husband men: howle, O ye vine dressers for the wheate, and for the barly, because the haruest of the fielde is perished. 12 The vine is dried vp, and the figge tree is decayed: the pomegranate tree and the palme tree, and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the fielde are withered: surely the ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men. 13 Girde your selues and lament, ye Priests: howle ye ministers of the altar: come, and lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meate offring, and the drinke offring is taken away from the house of your God. 14 Sanctifie you a fast: call a solemne assemblie: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord your God, and cry vnto the Lord, 15 Alas: for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it commeth as a destruction from the Almightie. 16 Is not the meate cut off before our eyes? and ioy, and gladnesse from the house of our God? 17 The seede is rotten vnder their cloddes: the garners are destroyed: the barnes are broken downe, for the corne is withered. 18 How did the beasts mourne! the herdes of cattel pine away, because they haue no pasture, and the flockes of sheepe are destroyed. 19 O Lord, to thee will I crie: for the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse, and the flame hath burnt vp all the trees of the fielde. 20 The beasts of the fielde cry also vnto thee: for the riuers of waters are dried vp, and the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernes.