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 Pethu'el:

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, you aged men, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or 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 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. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has 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, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet 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 has come up against my land, powerful and without number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

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. It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches 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 bridegroom 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 cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.

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 fields are laid waste, the ground mourns; because the grain is destroyed, the wine fails, the oil languishes.

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

11. Be confounded, O tillers of the soil, wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has 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 withers, the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are withered; and gladness fails 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 on sackcloth and lament, O priests, wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because cereal offering and drink offering are withheld 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 a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God; and cry to 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 near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

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 food cut off before our eyes, 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 shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed.

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 the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.

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

19. Unto thee, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has 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. Even the wild beasts cry to thee because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.