Joel 1:1-20

These are the words of YAHWEH that came to Joel son of Pethuel. Listen to this, you leaders in the land; everybody everywhere, pay attention! Has anything like this ever happened in your lifetime or in the days of your ancestors? Tell your children about it! And tell them to tell their children and to tell their children to tell the next generation. What the cutting-locust has left, the swarming-locust has eaten; what the swarming-locust has left, the hopping-locust has eaten; what the hopping-locust has left, the destroying-locust has eaten. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you wine-drinkers! For the new wine has been snatched from your lips. For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable, with teeth like a lion’s teeth, and with the fangs of a lioness. They have completely destroyed my vineyards and reduced my fig trees to splinters; they have stripped off the bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white. Lament like a young bride-to-be dressed in sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. YAHWEH’s ministers, the priests, are in mourning because there is no more grain and wine to offer in YAHWEH’s temple. The fields are stripped bare, and the ground is plunged into sadness over the ruined harvest. The grapes have dried up, and there is no new wine; only a trickle of olive oil remains. Be ashamed, you farmers, for there is no harvest of wheat and barley. You vinedressers, cry out in despair, for the harvest of the fields has been lost. The vine has withered, and the fig tree wilts away. In fact, every tree of the field has withered— pomegranate, date palm, and apple tree. And in the same way, the people’s joy and gladness has withered too. You priests, put on sackcloth and weep. You ministers who serve at the altar, mourn and wail! Go, spend the night in the temple, you servants of my God, because there is no more grain or wine offerings to bring to the house of your God. Declare a holy fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the leaders and all the people of the land to the house of YAHWEH your God. Cry out with all your hearts to YAHWEH! YAHWEH How awful that time will be! Look! The day of YAHWEH is certainly coming— the day when the Divine Destroyer brings destruction. Has not the food supply been cut off before our very eyes? Have not the joyful celebrations been silenced in the temple of our God? The seeds shrivel under the dry clods. The storehouses are empty; the barns are bare and broken down because the harvest has disappeared. How loudly the cattle groan because they have no pasture! The herds wander bewildered. Not even the flocks of sheep are able to graze. YAHWEH, I cry out to you with all my heart, for fire has devoured the open pastures, and flame has scorched all the trees of the field. The sources of water have run dry and fire has devoured the pasturelands, leaving the wild animals panting loudly for you.