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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 even 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 palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.⁵ Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek 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; its branches are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.⁹ The meat-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 ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field hath perished.¹² The vine is dried up, 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: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.¹³ Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [and] all the inhabitants of the land [into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, [and] joy and gladness from the house of our God?¹⁷ The seed hath perished under their clods, the granaries 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; yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.¹⁹ O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.²⁰ The beasts of the field cry also to thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.