Joel
Chapter 1
1
The word of the LORD which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2
Hear this, you elders! Pay attention, all you who dwell in the land! Has the like of this happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
Tell it to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4
1 What the cutter left, the locust swarm has eaten; What the locust swarm left, the grasshopper has eaten; And what the grasshopper left, the devourer has eaten.
5
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because the juice of the grape will be withheld from your mouths.
6
2 For a people has invaded my land, mighty and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and his molars those of a lioness.
7
He has laid waste my vine, and blighted my fig tree; He has stripped it, sheared off its bark; its branches are made white.
8
Lament like a virgin girt with sackcloth for the spouse of her youth.
9
Abolished are offering and libation from the house of the LORD; In mourning are the priests, the ministers of the LORD.
10
The field is ravaged, the earth mourns, Because the grain is ravaged, the must has failed, the oil languishes.
11
Be appalled, you husbandmen! wail, you vinedressers! Over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
12
The vine has dried up, the fig tree is withered; The pomegranate, the date palm also, and the apple, all the trees of the field are dried up; Yes, joy has withered away from among mankind.
13
Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! The house of your God is deprived of offering and libation.
14
Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, Into the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD!
15
Alas, the day! for near is the day of the LORD, and it comes as ruin from the Almighty.
16
From before our very eyes has not the food been cut off; And from the house of our God, joy and gladness?
17
The seed lies shriveled under its clods; the stores are destroyed, The barns are broken down, for the grain has failed.
18
How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered! Because they have no pasturage, even the flocks of sheep have perished.
19
To you, O LORD, I cry! for fire has devoured the pastures of the plain, and flame has enkindled all the trees of the field.
20
Even the beasts of the field cry out to you; For the streams of water are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the plain.
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Footnotes

1 [4] Cutter . . . locust . . . grasshopper . . . devourer: these names refer to various species of locusts; they can only be approximate.

2 [6] A people: the locusts compared to an invading army.


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December 09, 2002 Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops