Joel, chapter 1
The Lord's Invitation to Israel
Joel watches a huge swarm of locusts invade Israel and destroy its crops. He compares this invasion to an invasion of Israel by an unknown enemy army. These invasions are just a taste of the coming judgment day of the Lord. Joel invites the people of Israel to turn away from sin and return to the Lord, so they can be saved when that day of judgment comes.
am Joel the son of Pethuel. And this is the message
the Lord gave to me.
Locusts Cover the Land
2Listen, you leaders and everyone else in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened before?
3Tell our children! Let it be told to our grandchildren
and their children too.
4Swarm after swarm of locusts has attacked our crops,
eating everything in sight.
5Sober up, you drunkards! Cry long and loud;
your wine supply is gone.
6 A powerful nation with countless troops
has invaded our land.
They have the teeth and jaws of powerful lions.
7Our grapevines and fig trees are stripped bare;
only naked branches remain.
8Grieve like a young woman
mourning for the man she was to marry.
9Offerings of grain and wine
are no longer brought to the Lord's temple.
His servants, the priests, are deep in sorrow.
10Barren fields mourn;
grain, grapes, and olives are scorched and shriveled.
11Mourn for our farms and our vineyards!
There's no wheat or barley growing in our fields.
12Grapevines have dried up and so has every tree—
figs and pomegranates, date palms and apples.
All happiness has faded away.
Return to God
13Mourn, you priests who serve at the altar of my God.
Spend your days and nights wearing sackcloth.
Offerings of grain and wine
are no longer brought to the Lord's temple.
14Tell the leaders and people to come together at the temple.
Order them to go without eating and to pray sincerely.
15We are in for trouble!
Soon the Lord All-Powerful will bring disaster.
16Our food is already gone; there's no more celebrating
at the temple of our God.
17Seeds dry up in the ground; no harvest is possible.
Our barns are in bad shape,
with no grain to store in them.
18Our cattle wander aimlessly, moaning for lack of pasture,
and sheep are suffering.
19I cry out to you, Lord. Grasslands and forests are eaten
by the scorching heat.
20Wild animals have no water because of you;
rivers and streams are dry, and pastures are parched.