1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
1:2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
1:3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
1:4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
1:5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion; and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
1:7 He hath laid my vine waste and barked my fig tree; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
1:8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
1:9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.
1:10 The field is wasted; the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up; the oil languisheth.
1:11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley because the harvest of the field is perished.
1:12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
1:13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
1:14 Sanctify ye a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord, your God, and cry unto the Lord,
1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
1:16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
1:17 The seed is rotten under their clods; the garners are laid desolate; the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered.
1:18 How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
1:19 O Lord, to thee will I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee; for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.