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The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
An Invasion of Locusts
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1Hear this, 2you elders; give ear, 3all inhabitants of the land! 4Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
5Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
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What 6the cutting locust left, 7the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, 8the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, 9the destroying locust has eaten.
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Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and 10wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of 11the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
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For 12a nation has come up against my land, 13powerful and beyond number; 14its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
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It has laid waste my vine and splintered my 15fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
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17The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. 18The priests mourn, 19the ministers of the LORD.
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The fields are destroyed, 20the ground mourns, because 21the grain is destroyed, 22the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
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23Be ashamed,b O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, 24because the harvest of the field has perished.
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The vine dries up; 25the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and 26gladness dries up from the children of man.
A Call to Repentance
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27Put on sackcloth and lament, 28O priests; 29wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, 30pass the night in sackcloth, 31O ministers of my God! 32Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
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33Consecrate a fast; 34call a solemn assembly. Gather 35the elders and 36all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
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Alas for the day! 37For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almightyc it comes.
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Is not the food cut off before our eyes, 38joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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39The seed shrivels under the clods;d the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because 40the grain has dried up.
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How 41the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.e
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)