Good News Translation GNT
New International Version NIV
1 This is the Lord's message to Joel son of Pethuel.
1
The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2 Pay attention, you older people; everyone in Judah, listen. Has anything like this ever happened in your time or the time of your ancestors?
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Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell your children about it; they will tell their children, who in turn will tell the next generation.
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4 Swarm after swarm of locusts settled on the crops; what one swarm left, the next swarm devoured.
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What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
5 Wake up and weep, you drunkards; cry, you wine-drinkers; the grapes for making new wine have been destroyed.
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Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
6 An army of locusts has attacked our land; they are powerful and too many to count; their teeth are as sharp as those of a lion.
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A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.
7 They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.
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It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
8 Cry, you people, like a young woman who mourns the death of the man she was going to marry.
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Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 There is no grain or wine to offer in the Temple; the priests mourn because they have no offerings for the Lord.
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Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
10 The fields are bare; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the grapes are dried up, and the olive trees are withered.
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The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails.
11 Grieve, you farmers; cry, you that take care of the vineyards, because the wheat, the barley, yes all the crops are destroyed.
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Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The grapevines and fig trees have withered; all the fruit trees have wilted and died. The joy of the people is gone.
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The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.
13 Put on sackcloth and weep, you priests who serve at the altar! Go into the Temple and mourn all night! There is no grain or wine to offer your God.
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Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Give orders for a fast; call an assembly! Gather the leaders and all the people of Judah into the Temple of the Lord your God and cry out to him!
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Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15 The day of the Lord is near, the day when the Almighty brings destruction. What terror that day will bring!
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Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
16 We look on helpless as our crops are destroyed. There is no joy in the Temple of our God.
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Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds die in the dry earth. There is no grain to be stored, and so the empty granaries are in ruins.
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The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods.The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.
18 The cattle are bellowing in distress because there is no pasture for them; the flocks of sheep also suffer.
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How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 I cry out to you, Lord, because the pastures and trees are dried up, as though a fire had burned them.
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To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have become dry.
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Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.