1:1 This1 is the LORD’s message2 that was given3
to Joel4 the son of Pethuel:
A Locust Plague Foreshadows the Day of the Lord
1:2 Listen to this, you elders,5
and pay attention,6 all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life7
or in the lifetime8 of your ancestors?9
1:3 Tell your children10 about it,
and have your children tell their children,
and their children the following generation.11
1:4 What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed,12
and what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed,
and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed!13
1:5 Awake, you drunkards,14 and weep!
Wail, all you wine drinkers,15 over the sweet wine
because it has been taken away16 from you.17
1:6 For a “nation”18 has invaded19 our20 land.
There are so many of them they are too numerous to count.21
Their teeth are like those22 of a lion;
their incisors are like those of a lioness.23
1:7 They24 have desolated our25 vines;26
they have left our27 fig trees in splinters.
They have completely stripped off the bark28 and thrown them aside;
the29 twigs are stripped bare.30
A Call to Lament
1:8 Wail31 like a young virgin32 clothed in sackcloth,
lamenting the death of33 her husband-to-be.34
1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple35 of the LORD anymore.36
So the priests, those who serve the LORD, are in mourning.
1:10 The crops of the fields37 have been destroyed.38
The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.
The fresh wine has dried up;
the olive oil languishes.
1:11 Be distressed,39 farmers;
wail, wine dressers, over the wheat and the barley.
For the harvest of the field has perished.
1:12 The vine has dried up;
the fig tree languishes,
the pomegranate and date and apple40 as well.
In fact,41 all the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, the joy of the people42 has dried up!
1:13 Get dressed43 and lament, you priests!
Wail, you who minister at the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God,
because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings
to the temple of your God anymore.44
proclaim a sacred assembly.
Gather the elders and46 all the inhabitants of the land
to the temple of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.
1:15 How awful that day will be!47
For the day of the LORD is near;
it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.48
1:16 Our food has been cut off right before our eyes!49
There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God!50
1:17 The grains of seed51 have shriveled beneath their shovels.52
Storehouses have been decimated
and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.
1:18 Listen to the cattle groan!53
The herds of livestock wander around in confusion54
because they have no pasture.
Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
1:19 To you, O LORD, I call out for help;55
for fire56 has burned up57 the grassy pastures,58
and flames have razed59 all the trees in the fields.
1:20 Even the wild animals60 cry out to you;61
for the river beds62 have dried up,
and fire has destroyed63 the grassy pastures.64
The Locusts’ Devastation