Joel 1:8-14

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 .