Joel 1:4-20

English Standard Version

⁴ What ^(A)the cutting locust left,
    ^(B)the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    ^(C)the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    ^(D)the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and ^(E)wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of ^(F)the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶ For ^(G)a nation has come up against my land,
    ^(H)powerful and beyond number;
^(I)its teeth are lions' teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my ^(J)fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin^{[a] (K)}wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
^9 (L)The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
^(M)The priests mourn,
    ^(N)the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are destroyed,
    ^(O)the ground mourns,
because ^(P)the grain is destroyed,
    ^(Q)the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

^11 (R)Be ashamed,^[b] O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    ^(S)because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹² The vine dries up;
    ^(T)the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and ^(U)gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

^14 (AB)Consecrate a fast;
    ^(AC)call a solemn assembly.
Gather ^(AD)the elders
    and ^(AE)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!
^(AF)For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty^[c] it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
^(AG)joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

^17 (AH)The seed shrivels under the clods;^[d]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because ^(AI)the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How ^(AJ)the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.^[e]

¹⁹ To you, ^(AK)O Lord, I call.
^(AL)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(AM)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field ^(AN)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(AO)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.