1: The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
|
|
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?
|
|
3:
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their
children, and their children another generation. |
|
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 caterpiller eaten. |
|
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. |
|
6: For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without
number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth
of a great lion. |
|
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. |
|
8: Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of
her youth. |
|
9: The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the
house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. |
|
10: The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is
wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
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, |
|
15: Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as
a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. |
|
16: Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and
gladness from the house of our God? |
|
17: The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid
desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
20: The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of
waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the
wilderness. |