Previous     Next       Play // Stop Sound

          DASV: Joel 1

1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, O elders,
           and listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
      Has there been anything like this in your days,
          or in the days of your forefathers?
3 Tell your children about it,
     and let your children tell their children,
      and their children the next generation.
4 That which the cutting locusts left
           the swarming locusts have eaten.
     What the swarming locusts left
           the hopping locusts have eaten.
      What hopping locusts left
           the caterpillars have eaten.

5 Wake up you drunkards and weep.
     Wail all your drinkers of wine,
      because of the sweet wine;
     it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a "nation" has invaded my land,
     strong and without number;
            its teeth are like the teeth of a lion,
           and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid my vine waste,
           and splintered my fig trees.
      It has stripped its bark bare,
           and thrown it away;
            their branches are pure white.

8 Grieve like a virgin clothed in sackcloth
     for the husband of her youth.
9 The meal offering and the drink offering are
     cut off from the house of the LORD;
      the priests mourn, even the LORD's ministers.
10 The field is devastated,
     the land mourns;
      for the grain is destroyed,
     the new wine is dried up,
            the olive oil is slowed to a trickle.
11 Be disappointed, O farmers,
     wail, O vinedressers,
      for the wheat and barley;
     for the harvest of the field is wiped out.
12 The vine is withered,
     and the fig tree is dried up;
      the pomegranate and the palm tree too,
     and the apple tree,
     along with all the trees of the field that are withered;
      for joy has dried up from the people.

13 Clothe yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests;
            wail, O ministers of the altar.
     Come, pass 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 Proclaim a fast,
           call for a sacred assembly.
      Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land
           to the house of the LORD your God,
            and cry to the LORD.

15 Alas for the day!
     For the day of the LORD is near.
     It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes,
     joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds rot under their clods;
     the storehouses are devastated,
      the barns have been torn down;
     for the grain has dried up.
18 How do the beasts groan!
     The herds of cattle wander about,
            because they have no pasture;
     even the flocks of sheep suffer.

19 O LORD, to you I cry;
     for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
     and the flames have burned all the trees of the field.
20 The wild animals of the field pant to you;
     for the water brooks are dried up,
      and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Previous     Next       Play // Stop Sound