Chapter 1

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

Joel 1:1

² Hear these [words], ye elders, and hearken all ye that inhabit the land. Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? ³ Tell your children concerning them, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation. ⁴ The leavings of the caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten.

Joel 1:2-4

⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all ye that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth. ⁶ For 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. ⁷ He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig trees: he has utterly searched [my vine], and cast it down; he has peeled its branches.

Joel 1:5-7

⁸ Lament to me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ The meat offering and drink offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, ye priests that serve at the altar of the Lord. ¹⁰ For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the corn languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce; ¹¹ the husbandmen are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from off the field. ¹² The 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 have abolished joy.

Joel 1:8-12

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

Joel 1:13

¹⁴ Sanctify 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,

Joel 1:14

¹⁵ Alas, alas, alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is nigh, and it will come as trouble upon trouble. ¹⁶ [Your] meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God. ¹⁷ The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the winepresses are broken down; for the corn is withered. ¹⁸ What 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. ¹⁹ To thee, O Lord, will I cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burned up all the trees of the field. ²⁰ And the cattle of the field have looked up to thee: for the fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.

Joel 1:15-20