Study Desk

The word of the Lord that came^(a) to Joel^(b) son of Pethuel.

Hear this,^(c) you elders;^(d) listen, all who live in the land.^(e) Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?^(f)

Tell it to your children,^(g) and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.^(h)

What the locust⁽ⁱ⁾ swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left^(j) other locusts^[a] have eaten.^(k)

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine;^(l) wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched^(m) from your lips.

A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number;⁽ⁿ⁾ it has the teeth^(o) of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.

It has laid waste^(p) my vines and ruined my fig trees.^(q) It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth^(r) grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

Grain offerings and drink offerings^(s) are cut off from the house of the Lord . The priests are in mourning,^(t) those who minister before the Lord .

The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up;^(u) the grain is destroyed, the new wine^(v) is dried up, the olive oil fails.^(w)

Despair, you farmers,^(x) wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley,^(y) because the harvest of the field is destroyed.^(z)

The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered;^(aa) the pomegranate,^(ab) the palm and the apple^[b] tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up.^(ac) Surely the people's joy is withered away.

Put on sackcloth,^(ad) you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister^(ae) before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings^(af) are withheld from the house of your God.

Declare a holy fast;^(ag) call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land^(ah) to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out^(ai) to the Lord .^(aj)

Alas for that^(ak) day! For the day of the Lord ^(al) is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^[c](am)

Has not the food been cut off^(an) before our very eyes— joy and gladness^(ao) from the house of our God?^(ap)

The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods.^[d](aq) The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.

How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture;^(ar) even the flocks of sheep are suffering.^(as)

To you, Lord , I call,^(at) for fire^(au) has devoured the pastures^(av) in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the wild animals pant for you;^(aw) the streams of water have dried up^(ax) and fire has devoured the pastures^(ay) in the wilderness.