1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2. Listen to this, elders, and pay close attention, all inhabitants of the land. Did this ever happen in your days or in the days of your fathers?
3. Talk this over with your sons, and your sons with their sons, and their sons with another generation.
4. The locust has eaten what the caterpillar has left, and the beetle has eaten what the locust has left, and the mildew has eaten what the beetle has left.
5. Rouse yourselves, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you who delight in drinking wine; for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6. For a nation has ascended over my land: strong and without number. His teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and his molars are like that of a lion's young.
7. He has put my vineyard into desolation, and he has pulled off the bark of my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and cast it away; its branches have become white.