1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2. Hear this, you elders;give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days,or in the days of your fathers?
3. Tell your children of it,and let your children tell their children,and their children to another generation.
4. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten.What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten,and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
5. Awake, you drunkards, and weep,and wail, all you drinkers of wine,because of the sweet wine,for it is cut off from your mouth.
6. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth,and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7. It has laid waste my vineand splintered my fig tree;it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;their branches are made white.
8. Lament like a virgin wearing sackclothfor the bridegroom of her youth.