(This is) the word of the LORD that came to Joel - son of Pethuel :
Hear this , O elders ; and give ear , all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers ?
Tell it to your children ; let your children tell it to their children , and their children to the next generation.
What the devouring locust has left , the swarming locust has eaten ; what the swarming locust has left , the young locust has eaten ; and what the young locust has left , the destroying locust has eaten.
Wake up , you drunkards , and weep ; wail , all you drinkers of wine , because of the sweet wine , for it has been cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has invaded ... My land , powerful and without number ; its teeth (are) the teeth of a lion , and its fangs (are the fangs) of a lioness
It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark - and thrown it away ; the branches have turned white.
Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth , grieving for the husband of her youth.
Grain and drink offerings ... have been cut off from the house of the LORD ; the priests are in mourning , those who minister before the LORD.
The field is ruined ; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed , the new wine ... is dried up , (and) the oil fails.
Be dismayed , O farmers , wail , O vinedressers , over the wheat and barley , because the harvest of the field has perished.
The grapevine is dried up , and the fig tree is withered ; the pomegranate , ... palm , and apple — all the trees of the orchard — are withered. Surely the joy of vvv mankind has dried up.
Put on (sackcloth) and lament , O priests ; wail , O ministers of the altar. Come , spend the night in sackcloth , O ministers of my God , because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
Consecrate a fast ; proclaim a solemn assembly ! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God , and cry out to the LORD.
Alas for the day ! For the Day of the LORD is near , and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes — joy and gladness from the house of our God ?
The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods ; the storehouses are in ruins ; the granaries are broken down , for the grain has withered away.
How the cattle groan ! The herds ... wander in confusion because they have no pasture Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
To You , O LORD , I call , for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for You , for the streams of water have dried up , and fire has consumed the open pastures.