1The word of the Lord is this, that was made to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2Eld [or old] men, hear ye this, and all dwellers of the land, perceive ye with ears. If this thing was done in your days, either in the days of your fathers.

3Of this thing tell ye to your sons, and your sons tell to their sons, and the sons of them tell to another generation.

4A locust ate the residue of a wortworm, and a bruchus ate the residue of a locust, and rust ate the residue of a bruchus.

5Drunken men, wake ye, and weep; and yell ye, all that drink wine in sweetness; for it perished from your mouth.

6For why a folk strong and unnumberable ascended [or went up] on my land. The teeth thereof be as the teeth of a lion, and the cheek teeth thereof be as of a whelp of a lion.

7It setted my vinery [or put my vineyard] into desert, and took away the rind of my fig tree. It made naked and spoiled that vinery, and casted forth; the branches thereof be made white.

8Wail thou, as a virgin girded with a sackcloth on the husband of her time of marriage.

9Sacrifice and moist sacrifice perished from the house of the Lord; and priests, the ministers of the Lord, mourned.

10The country is made bare of people. The earth mourned; for wheat is destroyed. Wine is shamed, and oil was sick, either failed.

11The earth-tillers be shamed, the vine-tillers yelled on wheat and barley; for the ripe corn of the field is perished.

12The vinery is shamed [or the vine-yard is confounded]; and the fig tree was sick. The pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the fir tree, and all the trees of the field dried up; for joy is shamed from the sons of men.

13Ye priests, gird you, and wail; ye ministers of the altar, yell. Ministers of my God, enter ye, lie ye in sackcloth; for why sacrifice and moist sacrifice perished from the house of your God.

14Hallow ye fasting, call ye the company, gather ye together eld [or old] men, and all dwellers of the earth, into the house of your God; and cry ye to the Lord,

15A! A! A! to the day; for the day of the Lord is nigh, and shall come as a tempest from the Almighty.

16Whether foods perished not before your eyes; gladness and full out joy perished from the house of your God?

17Beasts waxed rotten in their drit. Barns be destroyed, cellars be destroy-ed, for wheat is shamed.

18Why wailed a beast? why lowed the flocks of oxen and kine? for no pasture is to them; but also the flocks of sheep perished.

19Lord, I shall cry to thee, for fire ate the fair things of desert, and flame burnt all the trees of the country.

20But also beasts of the field, as a cornfloor thirsting rain, beheld [up] to thee; for the wells of waters be dried up, and fire devoured the fair things of desert.