Joel 1

NSB^{(i) 20} »Yes, the beasts of the field pant for you. The water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.« ¹ The word of Jehovah (YHWH) that came to Joel the son of Pethuel: ² »Hear this, you older men! Listen all you inhabitants of the land. Did this take place in your days, or in the days of your fathers? ³ »Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to each new generation. ⁴ »That which the gnawing locust left the swarming locust ate. That which the swarming locust left the creeping locust ate. That which the creeping locust left other locusts ate. ⁵ »Awake, you drunkards, and weep! Wail you drinkers of wine. The sweet wine is removed from your mouth. ⁶ »A nation has invaded my land. It is strong and very large. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the jaw-teeth of a lioness. ⁷ »He has laid my vine waste and stripped off the bark of my fig tree. He stripped its branches white and clean and threw it away. ⁸ »Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. ⁹ »The meal offering and the drink offering are removed from the house of Jehovah. The priests and Jehovah's ministers mourn. ¹⁰ »The field is laid waste, the land mourns. The grain is destroyed, the new wine dried up, the oil fails. ¹¹ »Be ashamed you farmers. Cry you vinedressers. The wheat, the barley and the harvest of the field have perished. ¹² »The vine and the fig tree fail. The pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field have dried up. Joy has withered away from the sons of men. ¹³ »Gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth you ministers of my God! The meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the House of your God. ¹⁴ »Sanctify a fast! Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the House of Jehovah your God. Call out to Jehovah. ¹⁵ »Alas for the day! For the day of Jehovah is near! Destruction will come from the Almighty! ¹⁶ »Is not the food consumed before our eyes? Is joy and gladness removed from the House of our God? ¹⁷ »The seeds rot under dirt clods. The storehouses are desolate. The barns are torn down because the grain has dried up. ¹⁸ »How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep suffer. ¹⁹ »I cry to you Jehovah! For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame burned all the trees of the field.