The Invasion of Locusts 1 UST I am Joel son of Pethuel. This is a message that Yahweh gave to me. BSB BSB: This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
2 UST You leaders{ of Israel}, and everyone else who lives in this country, listen{ to this message}! Nothing like this has ever happened during the time that we have lived or during the time when our ancestors lived. BSB BSB: Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?
3 UST Tell your children about it, and tell your children to tell it to their children, and tell your grandchildren to tell it to their children. BSB BSB: Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4 UST Tell them this: The first swarm of locusts came and cut many of the leaves of the crops; then another swarm came and ate the rest of the leaves, then hopping locusts came and ate what they had left, and finally, another swarm came and they destroyed everything else. BSB BSB: What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
5 UST You people who are drunk, wake up and cry! Cry loudly, all of you who drink wine, because all the grapes are ruined, and so there will be no new wine! BSB BSB: Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 UST Huge swarms of locusts have entered our country. They are like a powerful army that has very many soldiers; no one can count them. The locusts have teeth that are as sharp as the teeth of lions! BSB BSB: For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.
7 UST They have destroyed our grapevines and our fig trees by stripping off and eating all the bark, with the result that the branches are white and bare. BSB BSB: It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.
A Call to Mourning 8 UST Cry and wail as a young woman does when the young man to whom she was engaged has died. BSB BSB: Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
9 UST There is no more flour or wine for us to offer as sacrifices at Yahweh’ s temple, so the priests who serve Yahweh are mourning. BSB BSB: Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
10 UST The locusts have ruined the{ crops in the} fields. It is as though the ground itself is mourning because the grain is gone; there will be no{ grapes to make} wine, and there is no more{ olive} oil. BSB BSB: The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
11 UST You farmers, despair! You who take care of grapevines, cry loudly, because the crops in the field are gone; there is no wheat or barley growing any more. BSB BSB: Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 UST The grapevines and the fig trees have withered, and the pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apricot trees have also dried up. The people are no longer joyful. BSB BSB: The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.
A Call to Repentance (Amos 5:4–15; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)
13 UST You priests, put on{ rough sack} clothes and wail. You who serve my God{ by offering sacrifices} on the altar, wear those sack clothes all night{ to show that you are mourning}, because there is no flour or wine to be offered at the temple of your God. BSB BSB: Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
14 UST Set apart a day for when the people should go without food. Tell the leaders and the other people to gather at the temple and to cry out to Yahweh{ there}. BSB BSB: Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15 UST It will soon be the time when Yahweh,{ who is} the Almighty God, will punish us, when he will cause us to experience more disasters. That will be a terrible time! BSB BSB: Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 UST Our crops are already gone, and no{ one is} rejoicing at all at the temple of our God. BSB BSB: Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 UST When we plant seeds,{ they do not grow;} they dry up in the ground, so there are no crops to harvest. Our barns are empty; there is no grain{ to store in them}. BSB BSB: The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.
18 UST Our cattle groan, searching for a pasture with some grass to eat but not finding any. The sheep also{ bleat because they} are suffering. BSB BSB: How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 UST Yahweh, I cry out to you, because{ it is as though} a fire has completely burned our pastures and our forests. BSB BSB: To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.
20 UST The wild animals also are desperate for you to help them, because all the streams have dried up. The dryness is like a fire burning up the wilderness pastures. BSB BSB: Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.