Joel 1:2-20

21Hear this, you 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 have your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.

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

815Wail like a virgin 16clothed with sackcloth For the groom of her youth.9The 17grain offering and the drink offering have been 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 has dried up, Fresh oil has 21failed.1122Be ashamed, you farm workers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the 23harvest of the field is destroyed.12The 24vine has dried up And the fig tree has withered; The 25pomegranate, the 26palm also, and the 27apple tree, All the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, 28joy has dried up From the sons of mankind.

1329Put on sackcloth And mourn, you priests; 30Wail, you ministers of the altar! Come, 31spend 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.1432Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a 33solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the Lord your God, And 34cry out to the Lord.1535Woe for the day! For the 36day of the Lord is near, And it will come as 37destruction from the 38Almighty.16Has 39food not been cut off before our eyes, and Joy and 40rejoicing from the house of our God?17The 4142seeds have dried up under their shovels; The storehouses have become desolate, The grain silos are ruined, Because the grain has dried up.18How 43the animals have groaned! The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep have 44suffered.1945To You, Lord, I cry out; For 46fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.20Even the animals of the field 4748pant for You; For the 49stream beds of water are dried up, And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.