- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 mourn, even the LORD"S ministers.
- 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, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley;
because 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, and lament, ye priests, wail, 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 ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders 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 a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
- 16
- Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
- 17
- The grains shrivel under their hoes;
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
- Unto Thee, O LORD, 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.
- 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.
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