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

An invasion of locusts

2Hear this, you elders;

listen, all who live in the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your days

or in the days of your ancestors?

3Tell it to your children,

and let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.

4What the locust swarm has left

the great locusts have eaten;

what the great locusts have left

the young locusts have eaten;

what the young locusts have left

other locusts1:4 The precise meaning of the four Hebrew words used here for locusts is uncertain. have eaten.

5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!

Wail, all you drinkers of wine;

wail because of the new wine,

for it has been snatched from your lips.

6A nation has invaded my land,

a mighty army without number;

it has the teeth of a lion,

the fangs of a lioness.

7It has laid waste my vines

and ruined my fig-trees.

It has stripped off their bark

and thrown it away,

leaving their branches white.

8Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth

grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

9Grain offerings and drink offerings

are cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests are in mourning,

those who minister before the Lord.

10The fields are ruined,

the ground is dried up;

the grain is destroyed,

the new wine is dried up,

the olive oil fails.

11Despair, you farmers,

wail, you vine growers;

grieve for the wheat and the barley,

because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

12The vine is dried up

and the fig-tree is withered;

the pomegranate, the palm and the apple1:12 Or possibly apricot tree –

all the trees of the field – are dried up.

Surely the people’s joy

is withered away.

A call to lamentation

13Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;

wail, you who minister before the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

you who minister before my God;

for the grain offerings and drink offerings

are withheld from the house of your God.

14Declare a holy fast;

call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders

and all who live in the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

15Alas for that day!

For the day of the Lord is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty.1:15 Hebrew Shaddai

16Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes –

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

17The seeds are shrivelled

beneath the clods.1:17 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.

The storehouses are in ruins,

the granaries have been broken down,

for the grain has dried up.

18How the cattle moan!

The herds mill about

because they have no pasture;

even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19To you, Lord, I call,

for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness

and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

20Even the wild animals pant for you;

the streams of water have dried up

and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.