Joel 1:1-2:17

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

An Invasion of Locusts 2Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?

3Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

4What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts The precise meaning of the four Hebrew words used here for locusts is uncertain. have eaten.

5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

6A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.

7It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

8Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

9Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD . The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD .

10The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails.

11Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

12The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple Or possibly apricot tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.

A Call to Lamentation 13Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

14Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD .

15Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Hebrew Shaddai

16Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.

18How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. 20Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

An Army of Locusts 1Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand—

2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

3Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.

4They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry.

5With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

6At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale.

7They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.

8They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks.

9They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.

10Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

11The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

Rend Your Heart 12“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

14Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

15Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

16Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

17Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD . Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”