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¹ The word of Yahweh, which came unto Joel, son of Pethuel.² Hear this, ye elders, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land, - hath this ever happened in your days? or in the days of your fathers?³ Concerning it, to your children, tell ye the story, - and your children, to their children, and their children, to the generation following: - ⁴ That which was left by the creeping locust, hath the swarming locust eaten, and, that which was left by the swarming locust, hath the grass locust eaten; and, that which was left by the grass locust, hath the corn locust eaten.⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, - over the new wine, because it hath been cut off from your mouth.⁶ For, a nation, hath come up over my land, bold, and without number, - his teeth, are the teeth of a lion, and, the fangs of a lioness, hath he!⁷ He hath turned my vine to a waste, and my fig-tree to splinters, - he hath, barked it clean, and cast it down, bleached are its branches.

⁸ Wail thou, like a virgin girded with sackcloth, for the owner of her youth.⁹ Cut off are the meal-offering and the drink-offering, from the house of Yahweh, - In grief are the priests, the attendants on Yahweh: - ¹⁰ Laid waste is the field, in grief is the soil, - for laid waste is the corn, abashed is the new wine, languisheth the oil.¹¹ Turn pale, ye husbandmen, howl, ye vinedressers, over the wheat, and over the barley, - for perished is the harvest of the field.¹² The vine, is abashed, and, the fig-tree, languisheth, - pomegranate, palm also, and apple - all the trees of the field, have withered, Yea abashed is gladness, away from the sons of men.¹³ Gird yourselves and beat the breast - ye priests, howl, ye attendants of the altar, go in and wrap yourselves for the night in sackcloth, ye attendants on my God, - for, withholden from the house of your God, are the meal-offering and the drink- offering.

¹⁴ Hallow ye a fast, Call a solemn assembly, Gather, O elders, all the inhabitants of the land, unto the house of Yahweh your God, - and make ye outcry unto Yahweh.¹⁵ Alas for the day! For near is the day of Yahweh, and, as a veritable Destruction from the Destroyer, shall it come.¹⁶ Is it not, before our eyes, that, food, hath been cut off? From the house of our God, rejoicing and exultation.¹⁷ Rotted hath the seed, under their clods, Laid waste are their stores, Thrown down are the garners, - Yea abashed is the corn.¹⁸ How do the beasts groan! Perplexed are the herds of oxen, because there is no pasture for them, - even, the flocks of sheep, are destroyed!¹⁹ Unto thee, O Yahweh, will I cry, - for, a fire, hath consumed the pastures of the wilderness, and, a flame, hath set ablaze all the trees of the field.²⁰ Even the beasts of the field, moan unto thee, - because dried up are the channels of water, and, a fire, hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.