1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
1:2 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?
1:3 Tell ye your children of it, and [let] your children [tell]
their children, and their children another generation.
1:4 That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten;
and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten;
and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar
eaten.
1:5 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.
1:6 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.
1:7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he hath
made it clean bare, and cast [it] away; its branches are made
white.
1:8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband
of her youth.
1:9 The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the
house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.
1:10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is
wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
1:11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers,
for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the
field hath perished.
1:12 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.
1:13 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
withheld from the house of your God.
1:14 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 to the LORD,
1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [is] at hand, and
as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
1:16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, [and] joy and
gladness from the house of our God?
1:17 The seed hath perished under their clods, the granaries are
laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is
withered.
1:18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.
1:19 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.
1:20 The beasts of the field cry also to thee: for the rivers of
waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of
the wilderness.
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