AB - Joel - 1

1:1  The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

1:2  Hear these words, you elders, and hear, you that inhabit the land. Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3  Tell your children concerning them, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

1:4  The leavings of the caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten.

1:5  Awake, you drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all you that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth.

1:6  For a strong and innumerable nation has come up against My land, their teeth are like lion's teeth, and their back teeth as those of a lion's whelp.

1:7  He has ruined My vine, and utterly broken My fig trees: he has utterly searched My vine, and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.

1:8  Lament to Me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

1:9  The grain offering and drink offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, you priests that serve at the altar of the Lord.

1:10  For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the grain languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce;

1:11  the farmers are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from off the field.

1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig trees have become few; the pomegranate, and palm tree, and apple, and all the trees of the field have dried up: for the sons of men have abolished joy.

1:13  Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, you priests: mourn, you that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloth, you that minister to God: for the grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

1:14  Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord,

1:15  Alas, Alas, Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as trouble upon trouble.

1:16  Your food has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God.

1:17  The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine presses are broken down; for the grain is withered.

1:18  What shall we store up for ourselves? The herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed.

1:19  To You, O Lord, will I cry; for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.

1:20  And the cattle of the field have looked up to You; for the fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.