Joel 1

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The word of Yahweh that was addressed to Joel son of Pethuel.	1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2 Listen to this, you elders; everybody in the country, attend! Has anything like this ever happened in yourday, or in your ancestors' days?	2 Listen to this, elders, and pay close attention, all inhabitants of the land. Did this ever happen in your days or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it and let your children tel their children, and their children the next generation!	3 Talk this over with your sons, and your sons with their sons, and their sons with another generation.
4 What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten, what the grown locust has left, the hopper haseaten, and what the hopper has left, the shearer has eaten.	4 The locust has eaten what the caterpillar has left, and the beetle has eaten what the locust has left, and the mildew has eaten what the beetle has left.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the new wine: it has beensnatched from your lips.	5 Rouse yourselves, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you who delight in drinking wine; for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded my country, mighty and innumerable, with teeth like a lion's teeth, with thefangs of a lioness.	6 For a nation has ascended over my land: strong and without number. His teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and his molars are like that of a lion’s young.
7 It has reduced my vines to a desolation and my fig trees to splinters, stripped them and broken themdown, leaving their branches white.	7 He has put my vineyard into desolation, and he has pulled off the bark of my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and cast it away; its branches have become white.
8 Mourn, as a virgin-bride in sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth!	8 Lament like a betrothed virgin, wrapped in sackcloth at the loss of the husband of her youth.
9 Cereal offering and libation are lost to Yahweh's Temple. The priests, the ministers of Yahweh, are inmourning.	9 Sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of the Lord; the priests who are ministers of the Lord have mourned.
10 The fields are ruined, the land is in mourning, for the grain has been ruined, the new wine has failed, ofolive oil only a trickle.	10 The region has been depopulated, the soil has mourned. For the wheat has been devastated, the wine has been disfigured, the oil has languished.
11 Stand dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat, for the barley! The harvest of thefields has been lost!	11 The farmers have been confounded, the vineyard workers have wailed over the crop and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine has withered, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree, every tree in thecountryside is dry, and for human beings joy has run dry too.	12 The vineyard is in ruin, and the fig tree has languished. The pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the fruit tree, and all the trees of the field have withered. For joy has been thrown into disorder before the sons of men.
13 Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail! Come here, lie in sackcloth alnight long, you ministers of my God! For the Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering andlibation.	13 Priests, gird yourselves and lament. Ministers of the altars, wail. Enter, ministers of my God, lie in sackcloth. For sacrifice and libation have passed away from the house of your God.
14 Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; you elders, summon everybody in the country to theTemple of Yahweh your God. Cry out to Yahweh:	14 Sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God. And cry out to the Lord:
15 'Alas for the day! For the Day of Yahweh is near, coming as destruction from Shaddai.'	15 “Ah, ah, ah, the day!” For the day of the Lord is near, and it will arrive, like a devastation, before the powerful.
16 Has not the food disappeared before our very eyes? Have not joy and gladness vanished from theTemple of our God?	16 Has not your nourishment perished from before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds shrivel under their clods; the granaries are deserted, the barns are in ruins, because theharvest has dried out.	17 The mules have rotted in their own manure, the barns have been demolished, the wine cellars have been destroyed, because the grain has been ruined.
18 Loudly the cattle groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The flocks ofsheep bear the punishment too.	18 Why have the animals groaned, the herds of cattle bellowed? because there is no pasture for them. Yes, and even the flocks of sheep have been lost.
19 Yahweh, to you I cry: for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in thecountryside.	19 To you, O Lord, I will cry out, because fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the countryside.
20 Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured thedesert pastures.	20 Yes, and even the beasts of the field have gazed up at you, like the dry ground thirsting for rain, because the fountains of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness.