1The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 2Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3Tell you your children of it, and let your children shew to their children, and their children to another generation. 4That which is left of ye palmer worme, hath the grashopper eaten, & the residue of ye grashopper hath the canker worme eaten, and the residue of the canker worme hath the caterpiller eaten. 5Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6For 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. 7He maketh my vine waste, & pilleth off the barke of my figge tree: he maketh it bare, and casteth it downe: ye branches therof are made white. 8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn. 10The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11Be ye ashamed, O husband men: howle, O ye vine dressers for the wheate, and for the barly, because the haruest of the fielde is perished. 12The vine is dried vp, and the figge tree is decayed: the pomegranate tree & the palme tree, and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the fielde are withered: surely the ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men. 13Gird 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. 14Sanctifie you a fast: call a solemne assemblie: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lorde your God, and cry vnto the Lord, 15Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16Is not the meate cut off before our eyes? & ioy, and gladnesse from the house of our God? 17The seede is rotten vnder their cloddes: the garners are destroyed: the barnes are broken downe, for the corne is withered. 18How did the beasts mourne! the herdes of cattel pine away, because they haue no pasture, & the flockes of sheepe are destroyed. 19O Lord, to thee will I crie: for the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse, and the flame hath burnt vp all the trees of the fielde. 20The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.