1. The word of the Lord, which came to Joel, son of Pethuel.
2. Hear this, elders,and give ear, all inhabitants of the land!Has anything like this happened in your days,or in the days of your fathers?
3. Tell it to your children,and let your children tell their children,and let their children tell another generation.
4. What the fledging locust left,the adult locust has eaten;what the adult locust left,the larval locust has eaten;what the larval locust left,the hopper locust has eaten.
5. Awaken, drunkards, and weep!Wail, all wine-drinkers,because the sweet winehas been cut off from your lips.
6. For a nation powerful and innumerablehas invaded my land;its teeth are like the teeth of a lion,like the fangs of a lioness.
7. It has despoiled my vine,and splintered my fig tree;it has stripped off its barkand cast it away,leaving its branches white.
8. Lament like a virgin wearing sackclothfor the husband of her youth.
9. The grain offering and the drink offeringare cut off from the house of the Lord;the priests mourn, who areministers to the Lord.
10. The field is ravaged,the ground mourns;for the grain is ruined,the new wine is dried up,and the oil dwindles.
11. Despair, fieldworkers;wail, vinedressers,for the wheat and the barley,because the harvest of the field has perished.