The Locusts Bring Desolation
The aword of Yahweh that came to bJoel, the son of Pethuel:
2 aHear this, O belders,
And give ear, all inhabitants of the land.
cHas anything like this happened in your days
Or in your fathers’ days?
3 aRecount about it to your sons,
And let your sons recount about it to their sons,
And their sons to the next generation.
4 What the agnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed;
And what the bswarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed;
And what the creeping locust has left, the cstripping locust has consumed.
5 Awake, adrunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
On account of the sweet wine
That is bcut off from your mouth.
6 For a anation has come up against my land,
Mighty and without number;
bIts teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has amade my vine a desolation
And my fig tree splinters.
It has stripped them bare and cast them away;
Their branches have become white.
8 aWail like a virgin bgirded with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The agrain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of Yahweh.
The bpriests mourn,
The ministers of Yahweh.
10 The field is adestroyed;
bThe land mourns,
For the grain is destroyed,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil fails.
11 aBe ashamed, O farmers,
Wail, O vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley,
Because the bharvest of the field perishes.
12 The avine dries up,
And the fig tree fails;
The bpomegranate, the cpalm also, and the dapple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up.
Indeed, erejoicing dries up
From the sons of men.
The Day of Yahweh Is Near
13 aGird yourselves with sackcloth
And lament, O priests;
bWail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, cspend the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
14 aSet apart a fast as holy,
Call for a bsolemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of Yahweh your God,
And ccry out to Yahweh.
15 aAlas for the day!
For the bday of Yahweh is near,
And it will come as cdestruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not afood been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and bjoy from the house of our God?
17 The aseeds shrivel under their clods;
The storehouses are desolate;
The barns are pulled down,
For the grain is dried up.
18 How athe beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 aTo You, O Yahweh, I cry;
For bfire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field apant for You;
For the bwater brooks are dried up,
And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.
aBlow a trumpet in Zion,
And make a loud shout on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the bday of Yahweh is coming;
Surely it is near,
2 A day of adarkness and thick darkness,
A day of clouds and dense gloom.
As the dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a bnumerous and mighty people;
There has cnever been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
For the years from generation to generation.
3 A afire consumes before them,
And behind them a flame burns.
The land is blike the garden of Eden before them
But a cdesolate wilderness behind them,
And nothing at all escapes them.
4 Their aappearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like war horses, so they run.
5 With a anoise as of chariots
They leap on the tops of the mountains,
Like the crackling of a bflame of fire consumes the stubble,
Like a mighty people arranged for battle.
6 Before them the peoples are awrithing;
All bfaces turn pale.
7 They run like mighty men;
They climb up the wall like men of war;
And they each amarch in line,
And they do not deviate from their paths.
8 They do not crowd each other;
They march everyone in his path;
When they fall against the defending weapons,
They do not break ranks.
9 They rush on the city;
They run on the wall;
They climb up into the ahouses;
They benter through the windows like a thief.
10 Before them the earth atrembles;
The heavens quake;
The bsun and the moon grow dark,
And the stars lose their brightness.
11 But Yahweh agives forth His voice before bHis military force;
Surely His camp is very numerous,
For cmighty is he who does His word.
The dday of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome,
And ewho can endure it?