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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 forefathers?³ Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children—and their children, the next generation.⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten^(a); what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.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 those of a lion, and its fangs are those 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; indeed, the grain is destroyed; the new wine is dried up, 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)

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 like destruction from the Almighty^(a).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.