Joel 1

Revised Geneva Translation

1 The Word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

² Hear this, O elders! And listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has there been such a thing in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your children about it. And let your children tell it to their children, and their children to another generation.

⁴ That which was left by the gnawing locust the swarming locust has eaten. And the leftovers of the swarming locust the creeping locust has eaten. And the leftovers of the creeping locust the consuming locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake you drunkards! And weep and howl all you drinkers of wine because of the new wine. For it shall be pulled from your mouth.

⁶ “Yea, a nation comes upon My land, mighty and without number, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lion. And he has the jaws of a great lion.

⁷ “He has laid waste My vine and splinters the bark of My fig tree. He makes it bare and casts it down. Its branches are made white.”

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

⁹ The Meat Offering and the Drink Offering are cut off from the House of the LORD. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is wasted. The land mourns. For the grain is destroyed. The new wine has dried up, and the oil has decayed.

¹¹ Be ashamed, O farmers! Howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished!

¹² The vine has dried up. And the fig tree has decayed. The pomegranate tree and the palm tree and the apple tree, all the trees of the field, are withered. Surely, the joy has withered away from the sons of men.”

¹³ Gird yourselves and lament, you priests. Howl, you ministers of the Altar! Come! Lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God. For the Meat Offering and the Drink Offering are taken away from the House of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify yourself a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the House of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

¹⁵ “Alas!” For the day, for the day of the LORD is at hand! And it comes as a destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes — joy and gladness from the House of our God?

¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods. The storehouses are destroyed. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

¹⁸ How the beasts mourn! The herds of cattle pine away, because they have no pasture. And the flocks of sheep are destroyed.

¹⁹ O LORD! To You will I cry! For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. And the flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.

²⁰ The beasts of the field also cry to You; for the river of waters have dried up. And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.