Joel 1

JuliaSmith^{(i) 1} The word of Jehovah which was to Joel son of Pethuel. ² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the earth. Was this in your days, and if in the days of your fathers? ³ Concerning it recount to your sons, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation. ⁴ The residue of the creeping locust the common locust ate; and the residue of the common locust the feeder ate; and the residue of the feeder the devourer ate. ⁵ Awake, ye intoxicated, and weep; and wail, all ye drinking wine, on account of the new wine, for it was cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation came up upon my land, strong, and no number; his teeth the teeth of a lion, and a biter's teeth of the lioness to him. ⁷ He set my vine for destruction, and my fig tree for breaking: he stripped off its covering and cast away; and its shoots were whitened. ⁸ Wail as the virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ The gift was cut off and the libation from the house of Jehovah; mourn, ye priests serving Jehovah. ¹⁰ The field was laid waste, the land mourned; for the grain was laid waste, the new wine was dried up, the new oil languished. ¹¹ The husbandmen were ashamed; wail, ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, for the harvest of the field perished. ¹² The vine was dried up, and the fig tree languished; the pomegranate, also the palm tree and the apple tree; all the trees of the field were dried up, for joy was dried up from the sons of man. ¹³ Be ye girded and lament, ye priests: wail, ye, serving the altar: come in, pass the night in sackcloth, ye serving God: for the gift and the libation were withheld from the house of your God. ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast., call an assembly, gather together the old men, all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah. ¹⁵ Alas! for the day: for the day of Jehovah is near, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. ¹⁶ Was not the food cut off before our eyes, from the house of our God, joy and gladness? ¹⁷ The kernels died beneath the clods, the treasures were laid waste, the garners were pulled down, for the grain was dried up. ¹⁸ How the beasts groaned! the herds of oxen wept, for no pasture to them; also the flocks of sheep were laid waste. ¹⁹ To thee, O Jehovah, will I call: for a fire consumed the habitations of the desert, and the flame burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Also the beasts of the field will look up to thee: for the channels of waters were dried up, and the fire devoured the habitations of the desert.