The Plague of Locusts

Joel 1

The word of YHWH that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

Y’all hear this, elders, and y’all listen, all inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in y’all’s days, or in the days of y’all’s fathers? Y’all are to tell your* children about it, and have y’all’s children tell their children, and their children, the next generation. What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten. What the young locust has left, the other locusts has eaten. Y’all wake up, drunkards, and weep! Y’all wail, all drinkers of wine, because the sweet wine is cut off from y’all’s mouth. For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. It has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of YHWH. The priests, YHWH’s ministers, mourn. The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

A Call for Lament and Mourning

Y’all get dressed and mourn, priests! Y’all wail, ministers of the altar. Y’all come and lie all night in sackcloth, ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from y’all’s God’s house. Y’all must sanctify a fast. Y’all must call a solemn assembly. Y’all gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of YHWH, your* God, and cry to YHWH. Alas for the day! For the day of YHWH is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. YHWH, I cry to you, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.