Joel, 1

1. The word of Yahweh that was addressed to Joel son of Pethuel.

1. The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2. Listen to this, you elders; everybody in the country, attend! Has anything like this ever happened in your day, or in your ancestors' days?

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 about it and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation!

3. Tell ye your children of it, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation.

4. What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten, what the grown locust has left, the hopper has eaten, and what the hopper has left, the shearer has eaten.

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. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the new wine: it has been snatched from your lips.

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 has invaded my country, mighty and innumerable, with teeth like a lion's teeth, with the fangs of a lioness.

6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

7. It has reduced my vines to a desolation and my fig trees to splinters, stripped them and broken them down, leaving their branches white.

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. Mourn, as a virgin-bride in sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth!

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

9. Cereal offering and libation are lost to Yahweh's Temple. The priests, the ministers of Yahweh, are in mourning.

9. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.

10. The fields are ruined, the land is in mourning, for the grain has been ruined, the new wine has failed, of olive oil only a trickle.

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

11. Stand dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat, for the barley! The harvest of the fields has been lost!

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

12. The vine has withered, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree, every tree in the countryside is dry, and for human beings joy has run dry too.

12. The vine is dried up, 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: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

13. Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail! Come here, lie in sackcloth all night long, you ministers of my God! For the Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering and libation.

13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

14. Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; you elders, summon everybody in the country to the Temple of Yahweh your God. Cry out to Yahweh:

14. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [and] all the inhabitants of the land [into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,

15. 'Alas for the day! For the Day of Yahweh is near, coming as destruction from Shaddai.'

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. Has not the food disappeared before our very eyes? Have not joy and gladness vanished from the Temple of our God?

16. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, [yea], joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17. The seeds shrivel under their clods; the granaries are deserted, the barns are in ruins, because the harvest has dried out.

17. The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18. Loudly the cattle groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep bear the punishment too.

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. Yahweh, to you I cry: for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in the countryside.

19. O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

20. Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured the desert pastures.

20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.