1The word of YHWH that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3Concerning it tell your sons, and your sons their sons, and their sons another generation.
4The remainder of the gnawing-locust the swarming-locust has eaten, and the remainder of the swarming-locust the licking-locust has eaten, and the remainder of the licking-locust the consuming-locust has eaten.
5Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, over the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
6For a nation has come up upon my land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and the fangs of a lioness it has.
7It has made my vine a desolation, and my fig tree a splintering; stripping it has stripped it and cast it down; its branches are made white.
8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of YHWH; the priests mourn, the ministers of YHWH.
10The field is devastated, the ground (adamah) mourns; for the grain is devastated, the new wine is dried up, the fresh oil languishes.
11Be ashamed, you farmers; wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and over the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
12The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple, all the trees of the field are dried up; for joy is dried up away from the sons of man (adam).
13Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lodge in sackcloth, you ministers of my God; for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of YHWH your God, and cry to YHWH.
15Alas for the day! For the day of YHWH is near, and as destruction from Shaddai it comes.
16Is not before our eyes the food cut off, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17The seeds shrivel under their clods; the storehouses are made desolate, the granaries are broken down; for the grain is dried up.
18How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, for there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19To you, YHWH, I cry; for fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and a flame has set ablaze all the trees of the field.
20Even the beasts of the field pant to you; for the channels of water are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.