1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

1:2  Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your forefathers?

1:3  Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.

1:4  What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten.

1:5  Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips.

1:6  A nation has invaded my land,
powerful and without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness.

1:7  It has laid waste my vines
and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.

1:8  Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
grieving for the husband of her youth.

1:9  Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the LORD.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the LORD.

1:10  The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up ;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the oil fails.

1:11  Despair, you farmers,
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

1:12  The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the joy of mankind
is withered away.

1:13  Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.

1:14  Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.

1:15  Alas for that day!
For the day of the LORD is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

1:16  Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?

1:17  The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up.

1:18  How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

1:19  To you, O LORD, I call,
for fire has devoured the open pastures
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

1:20  Even the wild animals pant for you;
the streams of water have dried up
and fire has devoured the open pastures.