The Invasion of Locusts

1The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3Tell your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation:

4that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

5Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.

7He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.

A Call to Mourning

8Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.

10The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.

12The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.

A Call to Repentance

(Amos 5:4-15; Zephaniah 2:1-3; Luke 13:1-5)

13Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.

14Hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, [and] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.

15Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

16Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.

19To thee, Jehovah, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.

20The beasts of the field also cry unto thee; for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.