The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon the people,
and invites them to fasting and prayer.
1:1. The word of the Lord, that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.
1:2. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the
land: did this ever happen in your days, or in the days of your
fathers?
1:3. Tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their
children, and their children to another generation.
1:4. That which the palmerworm hath left, the locust hath eaten: and
that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten: and that which
the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed.
That which the palmerworm hath left, etc. . .Some understand this
literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others
understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other
enemies.
1:5. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn all ye that take
delight; in drinking sweet wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6. For a nation come up upon my land, strong, and without number: his
teeth are like the teeth of a lion: and his cheek teeth as of a lion's
whelp.
1:7. He hath laid my vineyard waste, and hath pilled off the bark of my
fig tree: he hath stripped it bare, and cast it away; the branches
thereof are made white.
1:8. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her
youth.
1:9. Sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of the Lord: the
priests, the Lord's ministers, have mourned:
1:10. The country is destroyed, the ground hath mourned: for the corn
is wasted, the wine is confounded, the oil hath languished.
1:11. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled for the
wheat, and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is
perished.
1:12. The vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree hath languished: the
pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the apple tree, and all the
trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the
children of men.
1:13. Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of
the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because
sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.
1:14. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together the
ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God:
and cry ye to the Lord:
1:15. Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand,
and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.
1:16. Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from
the house of our God?
1:17. The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed,
the storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.
1:18. Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle low?
because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are
perished.
1:19. To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the
beautiful places of the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the
trees of the country.
1:20. Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a
garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are
dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the
wilderness.