Joel
Chapter 1
1 THE WORD of HaShem that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of
the land. Hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell
their children, and their children another generation.
4 That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten;
and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which
the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, and wail, all ye drinkers of
wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a people is come up upon my land, mighty, and without
number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a
lioness.
7 He hath laid my vine waste, and blasted my fig-tree; he
hath made it clean bare, and cast it down, the branches thereof are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband
of her youth.
9 The meal-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from
the house of HaShem; the priests mourn, even HaShem'S ministers.
10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is
wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
11 Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for
the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
12 The vine is withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the
pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of
the field, are withered; for joy is withered away from the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests, wail, ye
ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my
G-d; for the meal-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house
of your G-d.
14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the
elders and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of HaShem your G-d,
and cry unto HaShem.
15 Alas for the day! for the day of HaShem is at hand, and as
a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and
gladness from the house of our G-d?
17 The grains shrivel under their hoes; the garners are laid
desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are
perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.
19 Unto Thee, O HaShem, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured
the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath set ablaze all the trees of
the field.
20 Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto Thee; for the water
brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
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