A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Joel 1
Joel 1 is the opening chapter of the twenty-ninth book of the Bible. The 20-verse chapter records the locust plague that prompts the prophet's call to national mourning and repentance.
The chapter opens by identifying the prophet only briefly: Joel, son of Pethuel. Nothing else about him is known. The date of his prophecy is uncertain, with scholarly estimates ranging across several centuries.
Joel addresses the elders and the inhabitants of the land. He asks whether anything like this has ever happened before, then describes the disaster in detail. What the locust swarm has left, the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left, the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left, other locusts have eaten. Successive waves have stripped the land bare.
The effects fall on every part of society. Joel addresses the drunkards, who can no longer get wine because the vines are destroyed. He addresses the priests, who can no longer offer grain or drink offerings because the temple has no supplies. He addresses the farmers and vineyard keepers, who should mourn for the lost wheat, barley, fig trees, pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees. Even the animals are described as suffering, with cattle and sheep wandering in confusion because the pastures are gone.
The chapter closes with Joel's call. The priests should put on sackcloth and gather a holy fast at the temple. The day of the Lord is near, and the people should cry out to God.
Verse 1. This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
Verse 2. 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?
Verse 3. Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
Verse 4. 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.
Verse 5. 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.
Verse 6. 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.
Verse 7. 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.
Verse 8. Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
Verse 9. 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.
Verse 10. The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
Verse 11. Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
Verse 12. 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.
Verse 13. 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.
Verse 14. 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.
Verse 15. Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Verse 16. Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Verse 17. The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.
Verse 18. How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
Verse 19. To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.
Verse 20. Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.
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