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

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.

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.

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.

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

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,

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 wine-presses 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 burnt 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.