1. This is what the Lord said to Joel, son of Pethuel.
2. Listen to this, you leaders!Open your ears, all inhabitants of this land!Nothing like this has ever happened in your lifetimeor in your ancestors’ lifetime.
3. Tell your children about it.Have your children tell their children.Have your grandchildren tell their children.
4. What young locusts leave, mature locusts will eat.What mature locusts leave, adult locusts will eat.What adult locusts leave, grasshoppers will eat.
5. Wake up and cry, you drunks!Cry loudly, you wine drinkers!New wine has been taken away from you.
6. A strong nation attacked my land.It has too many soldiers to count.They have teeth like lions.They have fangs like grown lions.
7. They destroyed my grapevines.They ruined my fig trees.They stripped off what they could eat,threw the rest away,and left the branches bare.
8. Cry loudly like a young woman who is dressed in sackcloth,mourning for the man she was going to marry.
9. Grain offerings and wine offeringsare no longer brought to the Lord’s temple.The priests, the Lord’s servants, mourn.