1. The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2. 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?
3. Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation:
4. that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
5. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.
7. He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
8. Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9. The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.