The Prophet Joel

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- Chapter 1 -

I am Joel son of Pethuel. This is a message that Yahweh gave to me.

You leaders of Israel, and everyone else who lives in this country, listen to this message! Nothing like this has ever happened during the time that we have lived or during the time when our ancestors lived.

Tell your children about it, and tell your children to tell it to their children, and tell your grandchildren to tell it to their children.

I am talking about the locusts that have eaten our crops. The first swarm of locusts came and cut many of the leaves of the crops; then another swarm came and ate the rest of the leaves, then another swarm came hopping along, and finally another swarm came and they destroyed everything else.

You people who are drunk, wake up! Wake up and wail loudly, because all the grapes are ruined, and so there will be no new wine!

Huge swarms of locusts have entered our country. They are like a powerful army that has very many soldiers; no one can count them. The locusts have teeth that are as sharp as the teeth of lions!

They have destroyed our grapevines and our fig trees by stripping off and eating all the bark, with the result that the branches are white and bare.

A Call to Mourning

Cry and wail as a young woman does when the young man to whom she was engaged has died.

There is no more flour or wine for us to offer to be sacrifices at the temple, so the priests who serve Yahweh are mourning.

The crops in the fields have been ruined; it is as though the ground itself had died. The grain has been destroyed, there are no grapes to make wine, and there is no more olive oil.

You farmers, grieve! You who take care of grapevines, wail, because the grain has been destroyed; there is no wheat or barley growing.

The grapevines and the fig trees have withered, and the pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apricot trees have also dried up. The people are no longer joyful.

A Call to Repentance

(Amos 5:4–15; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)

You priests, put on rough sack clothes and wail. You who serve God by offering sacrifices on the altar, wear those sack clothes all night to show that you are mourning, because there is no flour or wine to be offered at the temple of your God.

Set apart a day for when the people should go without food. Tell the leaders and the other people to gather at the temple and to cry out to Yahweh there.

Terrible things are happening to us! It will soon be the time when Yahweh, who is God Almighty, will punish us, when he will cause us to experience more disasters.

Our crops are already gone, and no one is rejoicing at all at the temple of our God.

When we plant seeds, they do not grow; they dry up in the ground, so there are no crops to harvest. Our barns are empty; there is no grain to store in them.

Our cattle groan, searching for a pasture with some grass to eat, and the sheep bleat because they are suffering.

Yahweh, I cry out to you, because our pastures and our forests have dried up in the hot sunshine.

It is as though even the wild animals cry out to you because all the streams have dried up. The dryness is like a fire burning up the wilderness pastures.

The LORD’s(a) word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

Hear this, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

A Call to Mourning

Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD’s house. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

A Call to Repentance

(Amos 5:4–15; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)

Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,(b) for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.

Sanctify 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 to the LORD.

Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

LORD, I cry to you, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Footnotes

(a)1:1 When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name.

(b)1:13 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).