¹ The LORD’s¹ word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. ² Hear this, you elders, ³ Tell your children about it, ⁴ What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! ⁶ For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. ⁷ He has laid my vine waste, ⁸ Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth ⁹ The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD’s house. ¹⁰ The field is laid waste. ¹¹ Be confounded, you farmers! ¹² The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— ¹³ Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! ¹⁴ Sanctify a fast.
Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD, your God, ¹⁵ Alas for the day! ¹⁶ Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, ¹⁷ The seeds rot under their clods. ¹⁸ How the animals groan! ¹⁹ LORD, I cry to you, ²⁰ Yes, the animals of the field pant to you,