Joel 1:13-20 - A Call To Lamentation

¹³ Gird up and lament, priests; howl, ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, ministers of my God. For the food offering and the drink offering are held back from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Set apart a fast; call a solemn gathering; gather the elders and all the people of the land into the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to the Lord,

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is at hand, and it shall come as a ruin from the Almighty. ¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, and joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seed is rotten under their clods; the storage bins are laid waste; the barns are broken down, for the grain has dried up. ¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are troubled because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are destroyed. ¹⁹ O Jehovah, to You will I cry; for the fire has burned up the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰ The beasts of the field also cry to You; for the rivers of water are dried up, and the fire has burned up the pastures of the wilderness.