1 A word from the LORD {YHWH, Speaking One} came to Joel {Yoel: prophet named}, the son of Pethuel.
2 Attend to this, elders {zekenim: respected leaders}; listen carefully, all inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this taken place in your days, or in the days of your fathers {avot: ancestral forebears}?
3 Speak of it {aleha: this calamity} to your children; let your children speak to their children, and their children to the next generation {dor: later descendants}.
4 What the gnawing locust {gazam: crop-trimmer} left behind, the swarming locust ate; what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust ate; and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust {chasil: devastator} ate.
5 Rouse yourselves, drunkards {shikorim: habitual revelers}, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, over the new wine {asis: fresh grape juice}, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has advanced against my land {artzi: Holy Domain}, formidable {atzum: Overwhelming Force} and without number {mispar: Uncountable Multitude}; its teeth are like those of a lion, and it bears the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has made my vine {gafni: Israel’s fruitfulness} a wasteland and my fig tree a ruin {ktsafah: violent splintering}; it has stripped off their bark and flung it down, and their branches have turned white.
8 Cry out {eli: cry out in sorrow} in mourning like a virgin wrapped in sackcloth {chagurat-saq: rough mourning garment}, grieving over the husband of her youth.
9 Grain offering and drink offering have ceased from the house of the LORD {YHWH, Divine Sustainer}; the priests, the ministers {mesharthei: devoted worship servants} of the LORD, are mourning.
10 The fields are laid waste; the ground {adamah: cultivated soil} mourns, for the grain is ruined, the new wine has dried up, and the oil {yitzhar: pressed olive oil} languishes.
11 Be put to shame, farmers {ikkarim: land tillers}; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley, for the harvest {ketzir: reaping season} of the field has perished.
12 The vine is dried up and the fig tree is languishing; pomegranate, palm, and apple—all the trees of the field {hassadeh: cultivated land}—have withered, for joy {sason: festive delight} has dried up from the sons of man.
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Enter and remain all night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God {Elohai, Worship Recipient}, for grain offering {mincha: tribute sacrifice} and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Hold a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly {atzarah: sacred convocation}. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheichem, Covenant Authority}, and cry out to the LORD.
15 Woe for the day! For the day of the LORD {YHWH, Approaching Judge} is near, and it will come like devastation from the Almighty {Shaddai, Overpowering Judge}.
16 Has not the food been cut off before our eyes? From the house of our God {Eloheinu, Worship Receiver}, joy and rejoicing {vagil: communal exultation} have been cut off.
17 The seeds {perudot: scattered kernels} have shriveled under the clods; the storehouses are laid waste; the granaries {mammegurot: storage barns} are torn down because the grain has withered.
18 How the creature groans! The herds of cattle are perplexed for there is no pasture {mir'eh: grazing ground} for them; even the flocks of sheep lie desolate {ne'ashmu: brought to ruin}.
19 To you, O LORD {YHWH, Prayer Hearer}, I cry out; fire has ravaged the pastures {neot: open grazing places} of the wilderness, and flame has scorched every tree in the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant toward You{Sustaining Provider}, because the channels{apikei: streambeds} of water have dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.