Joel 1:1-7

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.