Joel 1:4-2:10

New Catholic Bible

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 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
    Lament, all you winedrinkers!
For the juice of the grape
    will be snatched from your mouth.
⁶ For a nation has invaded my land,
    powerful and too vast to count,
possessing teeth like those of a lion,
    and the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vines
    and destroyed my fig trees,
stripping off their bark
    and leaving their branches white.
⁸ Lament like a virgin garbed in sackcloth
    grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
⁹ Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests, the ministers of the Lord,
    are in mourning.
¹⁰ The fields are destroyed;
    the earth mourns.
The grain has been ruined;
    the wine has dried up;
    the oil has failed.
¹¹ Despair, you farmers,
    and wail, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley;
    the harvest of the fields is lost.
¹² The vine has withered;
    the fig tree droops.
The pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree—
    all the trees of the field have dried up.
And the joy of the people
    has also withered away.

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests!
    Wail, you ministers of the altar!
Come, pass the entire night in sackcloth,
    you ministers of my God!
For the house of your God is deprived
    of grain offerings and libations.
¹⁴ Announce a holy fast;
    proclaim a solemn assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord, your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.
¹⁵ Woe to us on that day!
    For the day of the Lord^[b] is near,
    coming as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off
    before our very eyes?
Have not joy and gladness disappeared
    from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seed has shriveled under the clods;
    the storehouses are empty,
and the granaries are deserted
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How loudly the cattle groan!
    The herds of oxen are bewildered
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep are wasting away.
¹⁹ To you, O Lord, I cry,
    for fire has consumed the open pastures
    and flames have destroyed every tree in the countryside.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field
    cry out to you.
For the streams of water have dried up,
    and fire has devoured the open pastures.

¹ Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
² A day of darkness and gloom is near,
    a day of clouds and blackness.
Like the dawn spreading over the mountains,
    a vast and powerful army approaches.
Their like has never been seen,
    nor will it ever be seen again
    in the ages to come.
³ Their vanguard is a devouring fire,
    while behind them is a consuming flame.
Ahead of them the land is like the Garden of Eden,
    but behind them lies a desert waste,
    and from that army there is no escape.
⁴ They have the appearance of horses;
    like cavalry they charge.
⁵ They leap over the mountaintops
    with a deafening din like that of chariots,
like the crackling of a blazing fire
    devouring stubble,
like a mighty army
    drawn up for battle.
⁶ At the sight of them
    people shrink back in anguish,
    their faces without color.
⁷ Like warriors they press forward;
    like soldiers they scale the walls.
They advance, marching straight ahead,
    without swerving from their paths.
⁸ They do not jostle one another;
    each marches straight ahead.
They surge through defenses
    without breaking ranks.
⁹ They burst ahead to assault the city,
    leaping onto the walls.
They climb into the houses,
    entering like thieves through the windows.
¹⁰ As they move forward,
    the earth quakes before them
    and the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withhold their light.