The LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
Hear this, you leaders of the people! Everyone listen! In all your history, has anything like this ever happened before?
Tell your children about it in the years to come. Pass the awful story down from generation to generation.
After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too!
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All the grapes are ruined, and all your new wine is gone!
A vast army of locusts has invaded my land. It is a terrible army, too numerous to count! Its teeth are as sharp as the teeth of lions!
They have destroyed my grapevines and fig trees, stripping their bark and leaving the branches white and bare.
Weep with sorrow, as a virgin weeps when her fiance has died.
There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the LORD. The priests are mourning because there are no offerings. Listen to the weeping of these ministers of the LORD!
The fields are ruined and empty of crops. The grain, the wine, and the olive oil are gone.
Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley--yes, all the field crops--are ruined.
The grapevines and the fig trees have all withered. The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees--yes, all the fruit trees--have dried up. All joy has dried up with them.
Dress yourselves in sackcloth, you priests! Wail, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God.
Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring the leaders and all the people into the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to him there.
The day of the LORD is on the way, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!
We watch as our food disappears before our very eyes. There are no joyful celebrations in the house of our God.
The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns and granaries stand empty and abandoned.
How the animals moan with hunger! The cattle wander about confused because there is no pasture for them. The sheep bleat in misery.
LORD, help us! The fire has consumed the pastures and burned up all the trees.
Even the wild animals cry out to you because they have no water to drink. The streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures.