1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell you your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

4 That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.

5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation is come up on my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion.

7 He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bore, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.

10 The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes.

11 Be you ashamed, O you farmers; howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

13 Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

19 O LORD, to you will I cry: for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field cry also to you: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

1:2 Hear this, ye {a} old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath {b} this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

(a) Signifying the princes, the priests, and the governors.

(b) He calls the Jews to the consideration of God’s judgments, who had now plagued the fruits of the ground for the space of four years, which was because of their sins, and to call them to repentance.

1:5 Awake, ye {c} drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

(c) Meaning, that the reason for their excess and drunkenness was taken away.

1:6 For {d} a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

(d) This was another plague with which God had punished them when he stirred up the Assyrians against them.

1:8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the {e} husband of her youth.

(e) Mourn grievously as a woman who has lost her husband, to whom she has been married in her youth.

1:9 The meat offering and the drink offering is {f} cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.

(f) The signs of God’s wrath appeared in his temple, in so much that God’s service was discontinued.

1:10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: {g} the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

(g) All comfort and substance for nourishment is taken away.

1:13 {h} Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

(h) He shows that the only means to avoid God’s wrath, and to have all things restored, is true repentance.

1:15 Alas for the day! for the {i} day of the LORD [is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

(i) We see by these great plagues that utter destruction is at hand.

1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the {k} fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

(k) That is, drought.