1The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bathuel.

2Hear these words, ye elders, and hearken all ye that inhabit the land. ⁰Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

3Tell your children concerning them, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4The leavings of the ¹caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten.

5Awake, ye drunkards, from ²your wine, and weep: mourn, all ye that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth.

6For a strong and innumerable nation is come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a lion's whelp.

7He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched my vine, and cast it down; he has ³peeled its branches.

8Lament to me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the ⁴husband of her youth.

9The meat-offering and drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, ye priests that serve at the altar of the Lord.

10For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the corn languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce;

11the husbandmen are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the ⁵harvest has perished from off the field.

12The vine is dried up, and the fig-trees are become few; the pomegranate, and palm-tree, and apple, and all the trees of the field are dried up: for the sons of men ⁶have abolished joy.

13Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests: mourn, ye that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, ye that minister to God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God.

14Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord,

15Alas, alas, alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is nigh, and it will come as trouble upon trouble.

16Your meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God.

17The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine-presses are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed.

19To thee, O Lord, will I cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field.

20And the cattle of the field have looked up to thee: for the ⁷fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.