- 1
- The word of Jehovah 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 even in the days of your fathers?
- 3
- Tell your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation:
- 4
- that which the palmer-worm 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 caterpillar eaten.
- 5
- Awake, ye drunkards, and weep;
and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new 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 cheek teeth of a lioness.
- 7
- He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree;
he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
- 8
- Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
- 9
- The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah;
the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.
- 10
- The field is laid waste, the land mourneth;
for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
- 11
- Be ashamed, ye husbandmen;
howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.
- 12
- The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth;
the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.
- 13
- Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests;
howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
- 14
- Hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, [and] all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
- 15
- Alas for the day!
for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
- 16
- Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- 17
- The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down;
for the corn is withered.
- 18
- How do the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.
- 19
- To thee, Jehovah, do I cry;
for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.
- 20
- The beasts of the field also cry unto thee;
for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
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