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!
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