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¹ The worde of the Lorde that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.² Heare ye this, O Elders, and hearken ye all inhabitantes of the land, whether such a thing hath bene in your dayes, or yet in the dayes of your fathers.³ Tell you your children of it, and let your children shew to their children, and their children to another generation.⁴ That which is left of ye palmer worme, hath the grashopper eaten, & the residue of ye grashopper hath the canker worme eaten, and the residue of the canker worme hath the caterpiller eaten.⁵ Awake ye drunkards, and weepe, & howle all ye drinkers of wine, because of the newe wine: for it shalbe pulled from your mouth.⁶ Yea, a nation commeth vpon my lande, mightie, & without nomber, whose teeth are like the teeth of a lyon, and he hath the iawes of a great lyon.⁷ He maketh my vine waste, & pilleth off the barke of my figge tree: he maketh it bare, and casteth it downe: ye branches therof are made white.

⁸ Mourne like a virgine girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.⁹ The meate offring, & the drinke offring is cut off from the House of the Lord: the Priests the Lords ministers mourne.¹⁰ The fielde is wasted: the lande mourneth: for the corne is destroyed: the new wine is dried vp, and the oyle is decayed.¹¹ Be ye ashamed, O husband men: howle, O ye vine dressers for the wheate, and for the barly, because the haruest of the fielde is perished.¹² The vine is dried vp, and the figge tree is decayed: the pomegranate tree & the palme tree, and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the fielde are withered: surely the ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men.¹³ Girde your selues and lament, ye Priests: howle ye ministers of the altar: come, and lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meate offring, and the drinke offring is taken away from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctifie you a fast: call a solemne assemblie: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lorde your God, and cry vnto the Lord,¹⁵ Alas: for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and it commeth as a destruction from the Almightie.¹⁶ Is not the meate cut off before our eyes? & ioy, and gladnesse from the house of our God?¹⁷ The seede is rotten vnder their cloddes: the garners are destroyed: the barnes are broken downe, for the corne is withered.¹⁸ How did the beasts mourne! the herdes of cattel pine away, because they haue no pasture, & the flockes of sheepe are destroyed.¹⁹ O Lord, to thee will I crie: for the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse, and the flame hath burnt vp all the trees of the fielde.²⁰ The beasts of the fielde cry also vnto thee: for the riuers of waters are dried vp, and the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernes.