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¹ The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw teeth of a great lion.⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.⁹ The meal offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn.¹⁰ The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.¹¹ Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.¹² The vine is withered, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men.¹³ Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come,¹⁶ Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?¹⁷ The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.¹⁹ O LORD, to thee do I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.²⁰ Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee: for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.