JPS - Joel - 1

1:1  THE WORD of HaShem that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

1:4  That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

1:6  For a people is come up upon my land, mighty, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and blasted my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it down, the branches thereof are made white.

1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

1:9  The meal-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of HaShem; the priests mourn, even HaShem'S ministers.

1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

1:11  Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

1:12  The vine is withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered; for joy is withered away from the sons of men.

1:13  Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests, wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my G-d; for the meal-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your G-d.

1:14  Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of HaShem your G-d, and cry unto HaShem.

1:15  Alas for the day! for the day of HaShem is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

1:16  Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our G-d?

1:17  The grains shrivel under their hoes; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

1:18  How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

1:19  Unto Thee, O HaShem, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath set ablaze all the trees of the field.

1:20  Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto Thee; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.