MSB JOEL Chapter 1

The Invasion of Locusts

1 [This is] the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

2 Hear this, O elders;

and give ear, all who dwell in the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your days

or in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell it to your children;

let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.

4 What the devouring locust has left,

the swarming locust has eaten;

what the swarming locust has left,

the young locust has eaten;

and what the young locust has left,

the destroying locust has eaten.[fn]

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;

wail, all you drinkers of wine,

because of the sweet wine,

for it has been cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has invaded My land,

powerful and without number;

its teeth [are] the teeth of a lion,

and its fangs [are the fangs] of a lioness

7 It has laid waste My grapevine

and splintered My fig tree.

It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away;

the branches have turned white.

A Call to Mourning

8 Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,

grieving for the husband of her youth.

9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off

from the house of the LORD;

the priests are in mourning,

those who minister before the LORD.

10 The field is ruined;

the land mourns.

For the grain is destroyed,

the new wine is dried up, [and] the oil fails.

11 Be dismayed, O farmers,

wail, O vinedressers,

over the wheat and barley,

because the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The grapevine is dried up,

and the fig tree is withered;

the pomegranate, palm, and apple—

all the trees of the orchard—are withered.

Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

A Call to Repentance

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

13 Put on [sackcloth] and lament, O priests;

wail, O ministers of the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God,

because the grain and drink offerings

are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate a fast;

proclaim a solemn assembly!

Gather the elders

and all the residents 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 it will come

as destruction from the Almighty.[fn]

16 Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes—

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

17 The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods;

the storehouses are in ruins;

the granaries are broken down,

for the grain has withered away.

18 How the cattle groan!

The herds wander in confusion

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To You, O LORD, I call,

for fire has consumed the open pastures

and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You,

for the streams of water have dried up,

and fire has consumed the open pastures.