A word of Jehovah that hath been unto Joel, son of Pethuel:

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?

What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly.

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, And howl all drinking wine, because of the juice, For it hath been cut off from your mouth.

It hath made my vine become a desolation, And my fig-tree become a chip, It hath made it thoroughly bare, and hath cast down, Made white have been its branches.

Cut off hath been present and libation from the house of Jehovah, Mourned have the priests, ministrants of Jehovah.

Spoiled is the field, mourned hath the ground, For spoiled is the corn, Dried up hath been new wine, languish doth oil.

Be dismayed, you farmers! Cry aloud, you vintners, for the wheat and barley, because the harvest in your fields has been lost.

The vine hath been dried up, And the fig-tree doth languish, Pomegranate, also palm, and apple-tree, All trees of the field have withered, For dried up hath been joy from the sons of men.

Gird, and lament, ye priests, Howl, ye ministrants of the altar, Come in, lodge in sackcloth, ministrants of my God, For withheld from the house of your God hath been present and libation.

Hasn’t the food been cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?

Rotted have scattered things under their clods, Desolated have been storehouses, Broken down have been granaries, For withered hath the corn.

How have cattle sighed! Perplexed have been droves of oxen, For there is no pasture for them, Also droves of sheep have been desolated.

Also the cattle of the field long for Thee, For dried up have been streams of water, And fire hath consumed comely places of a wilderness!'

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

Before it consumed hath fire, And after it burn doth a flame, As the garden of Eden is the land before it, And after it a wilderness -- a desolation! And also an escape there hath not been to it,

At their face trembled hath the earth, Shaken have the heavens, Sun and moon have been black, And stars have gathered up their shining.

Even now—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
turn to Me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Let Jehovah answer and say to His people, 'Lo, I am sending to you the corn, And the new wine, and the oil, And ye have been satisfied with it, And I make you no more a reproach among nations,

And full have been the floors with pure corn, And overflown have the presses with new wine and oil.

Then I have gathered all the nations, And caused them to go down unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, And I have been judged with them there, Concerning My people and Mine inheritance -- Israel, Whom they scattered among nations, And My land they have apportioned.

Send ye forth a sickle, For ripened hath harvest, Come in, come down, for filled hath been the press, Overflowed hath wine-presses, For great is their wickedness.

Sun and moon have been black, And stars have gathered up their shining.

And ye have known that I am Jehovah your God, Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain, And Jerusalem hath been holy, And strangers do not pass over into it again.

And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.