¹ The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

² Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell your children about it, and have your children Tell their children, and their children, another generation.

⁴ What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷ He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

⁸ Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

⁹ The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.

¹⁰ The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

¹¹ Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

¹² The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

¹³ Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶ Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

¹⁸ How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁹ Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰ Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹ Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.

² Sing to him, Sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.

³ Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.

⁴ Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.

⁵ Remember his marvelous works that he has done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

⁶ you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

⁷ He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸ He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,

⁹ the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,

¹⁰ and confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹¹ saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;"

¹² when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.

¹³ They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.

¹⁴ He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,

¹⁵ "Don't touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!"

¹⁶ He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.

¹⁷ He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.

¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,

¹⁹ until the time that his word happened, and Yahweh's word proved him true.

²⁰ The king sent and freed him; even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.

²¹ He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions;

²² to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.

²⁴ He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.

²⁵ He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

²⁷ They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸ He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn't rebel against his words.

²⁹ He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.

³⁰ Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.

³¹ He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.

³² He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.

³³ He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.

³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number,

³⁵ ate up every plant in their land; and ate up the fruit of their ground.

³⁶ He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.

³⁷ He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.

³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.

³⁹ He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.

⁴⁰ They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.

⁴¹ He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.

⁴² For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.

⁴³ He brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with singing.

⁴⁴ He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,

⁴⁵ that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise Yah!