Joel 1 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

The Devastation of Locusts

2Hear this, O elders,

Listen closely, all inhabitants of the land!

Has such a thing as this occurred in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3Tell your children about it,

And let your children tell their children,

And their children the next generation.

4¶What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;

And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;

And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.

5Awake, you drunkards, and weep;

Wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the sweet wine

That is cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation has invaded My land,

Mighty and without number;

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And it has the fangs of a lioness.

7It has made My vine (My people) a waste and object of horror,

And splintered and broken My fig tree.

It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them away;

Their branches have become white.

8¶Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth

For the bridegroom of her youth.

9The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

From the house of the Lord;

The priests mourn

Who minister to the Lord.

10The field is ruined,

The ground mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine is dried up,

The fresh oil fails.

11Be ashamed, O farmers;

Wail, O vinedressers,

For the wheat and for the barley,

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

12The vine dries up

And the fig tree fails;

The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,

All the trees of the field dry up,

Indeed, joy dries up and withdraws

From the sons of men.

13¶Clothe yourselves with sackcloth

And lament (cry out in grief), O priests;

Wail, O ministers of the altar!

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God,

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation and Drought

14Consecrate a fast,

Proclaim a solemn assembly,

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

15Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is at hand,

And it will come as a destruction from the Almighty.

16Has not the food been cut off before our eyes,

Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17The seeds shrivel under the clods,

The storehouses are desolate and empty,

The barns are in ruins

Because the grain is dried up.

18How the animals groan!

The herds of cattle are bewildered and wander aimlessly

Because they have no pasture;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer.

19O Lord, I cry out to You,

For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,

And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

20Even the wild animals pant for You;

For the water brooks are dried up

And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.