Read the Bible

The Devastation by Locusts

¹ The ^(C1)word of the LORD that came to ^(C2)Joel, the son of Pethuel:

^2 (C1)Hear this, you ^(C2)elders,
And listen, all inhabitants of the land.
^(C3)Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or in your fathers' days?

^3 (C1)Tell your sons about it,
And have your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.

⁴ What the ^(C1)gnawing locust has left, the ^(F1)swarming locust has eaten;
And what the ^(C2)swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the ^(C3)stripping locust has eaten.

⁵ Awake, ^(C1)you heavy drinkers, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
Because of the sweet wine,
For it has been ^(C2)eliminated from your mouth.

⁶ For a ^(C1)nation has ^(F1)invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
^(C2)Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the jaws of a lioness.

⁷ It has ^(C1)made my vine a waste
And my fig tree a stump.
It has stripped them bare and hurled them away;
Their branches have become white.

^8 (C1)Wail like a virgin ^(C2)clothed with sackcloth
For the groom of her youth.

⁹ The ^(C1)grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off
From the house of the LORD.
The ^(C2)priests mourn,
The ministers of the LORD.

¹⁰ The field is ^(C1)ruined,
^(C2)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine has dried up,
Fresh oil has ^(F1)failed.

^11 (C1)Be ashamed, you farm workers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the ^(C2)harvest of the field is destroyed.

¹² The ^(C1)vine has dried up
And the fig tree has withered;
The ^(C2)pomegranate, the ^(C3)palm also, and the ^(C4)apple tree,
All the trees of the field have dried up.
Indeed, ^(C5)joy has dried up
From the sons of mankind.

^13 (C1)Put on sackcloth
And mourn, you priests;
^(C2)Wail, you ministers of the altar!
Come, ^(C3)spend the night in sackcloth,
You ministers of my God,
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Have been withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

^14 (C1)Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a ^(C2)solemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land
To the house of the LORD your God,
And ^(C3)cry out to the LORD.

^15 (C1)Woe for the day!
For the ^(C2)day of the LORD is near,
And it will come as ^(C3)destruction from the ^(F1)Almighty.

¹⁶ Has ^(C1)food not been cut off before our eyes, and
Joy and ^(C2)rejoicing from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The ^(F1)(C1)seeds have dried up under their shovels;
The storehouses have become desolate,
The grain silos are ruined,
Because the grain has dried up.

¹⁸ How ^(C1)the animals have groaned!
The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep have ^(F1)suffered.

^19 (C1)To You, LORD, I cry out;
For ^(C2)fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Even the animals of the field ^(F1)(C1)pant for You;
For the ^(C2)stream beds of water are dried up,
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.