Joel 1:2-15

21Hear this, O 2elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. 3Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?34Tell your sons about it, And let your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.

4What the 5gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the 6swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the 7stripping locust has eaten.5Awake, 8drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is 9cut off from your mouth.6For a 10nation has 11invaded my land, Mighty and without number; 12Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.7It has 13made my vine a waste And my fig tree 14splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.

815Wail like a virgin 16girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.9The 17grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of the Lord. The 18priests mourn, The ministers of the Lord.10The field is 19ruined, 20The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil 21fails.112223Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the 24harvest of the field is destroyed.12The 25vine dries up And the fig tree 26fails; The 27pomegranate, the 28palm also, and the 2930apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, 31rejoicing dries up From the sons of men.

1332Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; 33Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, 34spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.1435Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a 36solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the Lord your God, And 37cry out to the Lord.1538Alas for the day! For the 39day of the Lord is near, And it will come as 40destruction from the 41Almighty.