Joel
1 The LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel. 2 Hear this, you leaders of the people. has anything like this happened before? 3 Tell your children about it in the years to come, Pass the story down from generation to generation. 4 After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, and then the stripping locusts, too! 5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! and all your sweet wine is gone. 6 A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, its fangs like those of a lioness. 7 It has destroyed my grapevines leaving the branches white and bare. 8 Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband. 9 For there is no grain or wine The ministers of the LORD are weeping. 10 The fields are ruined, and the olive oil is gone. 11 Despair, all you farmers! all the crops of the field—are ruined. 12 The grapevines have dried up, And the people’s joy has dried up with them. 13 Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests! to offer at the Temple of your God. 14 Announce a time of fasting; and cry out to him there. 15 The day of the LORD is near, How terrible that day will be! 16 Our food disappears before our very eyes. No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God. 17 The seeds die in the parched ground, and granaries are abandoned. 18 How the animals moan with hunger! The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery. 19 LORD, help us! and flames have burned up all the trees. 20 Even the wild animals cry out to you and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.