Joel 1 | New International Reader’s Version

1 A message from the LORD came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Here is what Joel said.

Locusts attack the land

2 Elders, listen to me. Pay attention, all you who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life? Did it ever happen to your people who lived long ago? 3 Tell your children about it. Let them tell their children. And let their children tell it to those who live after them. 4 The giant locusts have eaten what the common locusts have left. The young locusts have eaten what the giant locusts have left. And other locusts have eaten what the young locusts have left. 5 Get up and weep, you people who drink too much! Cry, all you who drink wine! Cry because the fresh wine has been taken away from you. 6 The locusts are like a mighty army that has marched into our land. There are so many of them they can’t even be counted. Their teeth are as sharp as a lion’s teeth. They are like the fangs of a female lion. 7 The locusts have completely destroyed our vines. They have wiped out our fig-trees. They’ve stripped off the bark and thrown it away. They’ve left the branches bare. 8 My people, mourn like a virgin who is dressed in the clothes of sadness. She is sad because she has lost the young man she was going to marry. 9 No one brings grain offerings and drink offerings to the LORD’s house anymore. So the priests who serve the LORD are filled with sorrow. 10 Our fields are wiped out. The ground is dried up. The corn is destroyed. The fresh wine is gone. And there isn’t any more olive oil. 11 Farmers, be sad. Cry, you who grow vines. Mourn because the wheat and barley are gone. The crops in the fields are destroyed. 12 The vines and fig-trees are dried up. The pomegranate, palm and apple trees don’t have any fruit on them. In fact, all the trees in the fields are dried up. And my people’s joy has faded away.

A call to mourn

13 Priests, put on the clothing of sadness and mourn. Cry, you who serve at the altar. Come, you who serve my God in the temple. Spend the night dressed in the clothes of sadness. Weep because no one brings grain offerings and drink offerings to the house of your God anymore. 14 Announce a holy fast. Tell the people not to eat anything. Gather them together for a special service. Send for the elders and all who live in the land. Have them come to the house of the LORD your God. And pray to him. 15 The day of the LORD is near. How sad it will be on that day! The Mighty One is coming to destroy you. 16 Our food has been taken away right in front of our eyes. There isn’t any joy or gladness in the house of our God. 17 The seeds have dried up in the ground. The corn is also gone. The storerooms have been destroyed. The barns are broken down. 18 Listen to the cattle groan! The herds wander around. They don’t have any grass to eat. The flocks of sheep are also suffering. 19 LORD, I call out to you. Fire has burned the desert grasslands. Flames have destroyed all the trees in the fields. 20 Even the wild animals cry out to you for help. The streams of water have dried up. Fire has burned the desert grasslands.

English Standard Version

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

2 Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. 4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. 5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. 7 It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white. 8 Lament like a virgin* wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. 9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. 10 The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes. 11 Be ashamed,* O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. 12 The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. 15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty* it comes. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed shrivels under the clods;* the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.* 19 To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Joel 1 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Locusts attack the land

A call to mourn

An Invasion of Locusts

A Call to Repentance