Joel 1:1 - 2:11 - Legacy Standard Bible

Joel 1:1 - 2:11

The Locusts Bring Desolation

The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2

Hear this, O elders,

And give ear, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days

Or in your fathers’ days?

Recount about it to your sons,

And let your sons recount about it to their sons,

And their sons to the next generation.

What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed;

And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed;

And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed.

Awake, drunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you wine drinkers,

On account of the sweet wine

That is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has come up against my land,

Mighty and without number;

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the fangs of a lioness.

It has made my vine a desolation

And my fig tree splinters.

It has stripped them bare and cast them away;

Their branches have become white.

Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of Yahweh.

The priests mourn,

The ministers of Yahweh.

The field is destroyed;

The land mourns,

For the grain is destroyed,

The new wine dries up,

Fresh oil fails.

Be ashamed, O farmers,

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley,

Because the harvest of the field perishes.

The vine dries up,

And the fig tree fails;

The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,

All the trees of the field dry up.

Indeed, rejoicing dries up

From the sons of men.

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

Gird yourselves with sackcloth

And lament, O priests;

Wail, O ministers of the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

Set apart a fast as holy,

Call for a solemn assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of Yahweh your God,

And cry out to Yahweh.

Alas for the day!

For the day of Yahweh is near,

And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Has not food been cut off before our eyes,

Gladness and joy from the house of our God?

The seeds shrivel under their clods;

The storehouses are desolate;

The barns are pulled down,

For the grain is dried up.

How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle wander aimlessly

Because there is no pasture for them;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

To You, O Yahweh, I cry;

For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness,

And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the beasts of the field pant for You;

For the water brooks are dried up,

And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.

Blow a trumpet in Zion,

And make a loud shout on My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

For the day of Yahweh is coming;

Surely it is near,

A day of darkness and thick darkness,

A day of clouds and dense gloom.

As the dawn is spread over the mountains,

So there is a numerous and mighty people;

There has never been anything like it,

Nor will there be again after it

For the years from generation to generation.

A fire consumes before them,

And behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them

But a desolate wilderness behind them,

And nothing at all escapes them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like war horses, so they run.

With a noise as of chariots

They leap on the tops of the mountains,

Like the crackling of a flame of fire consumes the stubble,

Like a mighty people arranged for battle.

Before them the peoples are writhing;

All faces turn pale.

They run like mighty men;

They climb up the wall like men of war;

And they each march in line,

And they do not deviate from their paths.

They do not crowd each other;

They march everyone in his path;

When they fall against the defending weapons,

They do not break ranks.

They rush on the city;

They run on the wall;

They climb up into the houses;

They enter through the windows like a thief.

Before them the earth trembles;

The heavens quake;

The sun and the moon grow dark,

And the stars lose their brightness.

But Yahweh gives forth His voice before His military force;

Surely His camp is very numerous,

For mighty is he who does His word.

The day of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome,

And who can endure it?