[1] The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
[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?
[3] Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
[4] That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
[5] Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
[6] For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth of a great lion.
[7] He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
[8] Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
[9] The meal offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.
[10] The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
[11] Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
[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.
[13] Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
[14] Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.
[15] Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come,
[16] Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
[17] The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
[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.
[19] O LORD, to thee do I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
[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.