Joel, 1

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

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

2. Hear this, you elders! Pay attention, all you who dwell in the land! Has the like of this happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

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?

3. Tell it to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation.

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

4. What the cutter left, the locust swarm has eaten; What the locust swarm left, the grasshopper has eaten; And what the grasshopper left, the devourer has eaten.

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.

5. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because the juice of the grape will be withheld from your mouths.

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

6. For a people has invaded my land, mighty and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and his molars those of a lioness.

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

7. He has laid waste my vine, and blighted my fig tree; He has stripped it, sheared off its bark; its branches are made white.

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.

8. Lament like a virgin girt with sackcloth for the spouse of her youth.

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

9. Abolished are offering and libation from the house of the LORD; In mourning are the priests, the ministers of the LORD.

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

10. The field is ravaged, the earth mourns, Because the grain is ravaged, the must has failed, the oil languishes.

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.

11. Be appalled, you husbandmen! wail, you vinedressers! Over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

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

12. The vine has dried up, the fig tree is withered; The pomegranate, the date palm also, and the apple, all the trees of the field are dried up; Yes, joy has withered away from among mankind.

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.

13. Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! The house of your God is deprived of offering and libation.

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.

14. Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, Into the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD!

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:

15. Alas, the day! for near is the day of the LORD, and it comes as ruin from the Almighty.

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

16. From before our very eyes has not the food been cut off; And from the house of our God, joy and gladness?

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

17. The seed lies shriveled under its clods; the stores are destroyed, The barns are broken down, for the grain has failed.

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

18. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered! Because they have no pasturage, even the flocks of sheep have perished.

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

19. To you, O LORD, I cry! for fire has devoured the pastures of the plain, and flame has enkindled all the trees of the field.

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

20. Even the beasts of the field cry out to you; For the streams of water are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the plain.

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