1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bethuel. 2 Hear these words, you elders, and listen all you that inhabit the land. Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children concerning them, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 The locust has eaten what the caterpillar left, and the palmerworm has eaten what the locust left, and the cankerworm has eaten what the palmerworm left. 5 Awake, you drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all you that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth.⁠a 6 For a strong and innumerable nation has come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a lion cub. 7 He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched my vine, and cast it down; he has peeled its branches. 8 Lament to me more than a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The grain-offering and drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, you priests that serve at the altar of the Lord. 10 For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the grain languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce; 11 the farmers are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from the field. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-trees have become few; the pomegranate, and palm tree, and apple, and all trees of the field are dried up: for the sons of men have abolished joy. 13 Wrap yourselves in sackcloth, and lament, you priests: mourn, you that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, you that minister to God: for the grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord, 15 Alas, Alas, Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as trouble upon trouble. 16 Your food has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God. 17 The heifers have started at their mangers,⁠b the treasures are abolished, the wine presses are broken down; for the grain is withered. 18 What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed. 19 To you, Lord, I will cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field. 20 And the cattle of the field have looked up to you: for the fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.