Joel 1

1 The word of the  Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

2  a Hear this, b you elders;
give ear, c all inhabitants of the land!
d Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
 3  e Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
 4  What f the cutting locust left,
g the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
h the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
i the destroying locust has eaten.
 5  Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and j wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of k the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
 6 For l a nation has come up against my land,
m powerful and beyond number;
n its teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
 7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my o fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.
 8  Lament like a virgin ▼
▼ Or young woman
 q wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
 9  r The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the  Lord.
s The priests mourn,
t the ministers of the  Lord.
 10 The fields are destroyed,
u the ground mourns,
because v the grain is destroyed,
w the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
 11  x Be ashamed, ▼
▼ The Hebrew words for  dry up and  be ashamed in verses 10–12, 17 sound alike
 O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
z because the harvest of the field has perished.
 12 The vine dries up;
aa the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and ab gladness dries up
from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

13  ac Put on sackcloth and lament, ad O priests;
ae wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, af pass the night in sackcloth,
ag O ministers of my God!
ah Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
 14  ai Consecrate a fast;
aj call a solemn assembly.
Gather ak the elders
and al all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the  Lord your God,
and cry out to the  Lord.
 15  Alas for the day!
am For the day of the  Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty ▼
▼  Destruction sounds like the Hebrew for  Almighty
 it comes.
 16 Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
ao joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
 17  ap The seed shrivels under the clods; ▼
▼ The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain

the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because ar the grain has dried up.
 18 How as the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer. ▼
▼ Or are made desolate

 19  To you, au O  Lord, I call.
av For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
aw and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
 20 Even the beasts of the field ax pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
ay and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
Copyright information for ESV