Dual Panel1The LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel.
2Hear this, you leaders of the people! Everyone listen! In all your history, has anything like this ever happened before?
3Tell your children about it in the years to come. Pass the awful story down from generation to generation.
4After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too!
5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All the grapes are ruined, and all your new wine is gone!
6A vast army of locusts has invaded my land. It is a terrible army, too numerous to count! Its teeth are as sharp as the teeth of lions!
7They have destroyed my grapevines and fig trees, stripping their bark and leaving the branches white and bare.
8Weep with sorrow, as a virgin weeps when her fianc‚ has died.
9There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the LORD. The priests are mourning because there are no offerings. Listen to the weeping of these ministers of the LORD!
10The fields are ruined and empty of crops. The grain, the wine, and the olive oil are gone.
11Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley––yes, all the field crops––are ruined.
12The grapevines and the fig trees have all withered. The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees––yes, all the fruit trees––have dried up. All joy has dried up with them.
13Dress yourselves in sackcloth, you priests! Wail, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! There is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God.
14Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring the leaders and all the people into the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to him there.
15The day of the LORD is on the way, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!
16We watch as our food disappears before our very eyes. There are no joyful celebrations in the house of our God.
17The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns and granaries stand empty and abandoned.
18How the animals moan with hunger! The cattle wander about confused because there is no pasture for them. The sheep bleat in misery.
19LORD, help us! The fire has consumed the pastures and burned up all the trees.
20Even the wild animals cry out to you because they have no water to drink. The streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the pastures.