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

2 H ear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the earth. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3 T ell your sons of it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons another generation.

4 T hat which the palmerworm has left the locust has eaten; and that which the locust has left the cankerworm has eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten.

5 A wake, 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 F or a people has come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the molars of a great lion.

7 H e has laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare and cast it away; its branches are made white.

8 ¶ Lament like a young woman girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 T he grain offering and the drink offering of the house of the LORD has perished; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

10 T he field was destroyed, the land mourns; for the wheat was destroyed; the new wine was dried up, the oil perished.

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

12 T he vine has dried up, and the fig tree has perished; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, have withered: therefore joy has withered away from the sons of men.

13 G ird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the present and the drink offering is taken away from the house of your God.

14 ¶ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the earth into the house of the LORD your God and cry unto the LORD.

15 A las for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

16 I s not the food cut off before our eyes, the joy and the gladness from the house of our God?

17 T he seed has rotted under their clods, the storehouses were laid desolate, the barns were destroyed for the wheat is withered.

18 H ow the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep are condemned.

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

20 T he beasts of the field also cry unto thee for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the meadows of the wilderness.