The Invasion of Locusts

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

² 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?

³ Tell it to your children;

let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

A Call to Mourning

⁸ Wail like a virgin^* dressed in sackcloth,

grieving for the husband of her youth.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ The field is ruined;

the land mourns.

For the grain is destroyed,

the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers,

wail, O vinedressers,

over the wheat and barley,

because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² 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 mankind has dried up.

A Call to Repentance

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ Alas for the day!

For the Day of the LORD is near,

and it will come

as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes —

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods;

the storehouses are in ruins;

the granaries are broken down,

for the grain has withered away.

¹⁸ How the cattle groan!

The herds wander in confusion

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.^*

¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call,

for fire has consumed the open pastures

and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You,

for the streams of water have dried up,

and fire has consumed the open pastures.