English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
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God's Message to Joel son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
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Attention, elder statesmen! Listen closely, everyone, whoever and wherever you are! Have you ever heard of anything like this? Has anything like this ever happened before - ever?
3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
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Make sure you tell your children, and your children tell their children, And their children their children. Don't let this message die out.
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.
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What the chewing locust left, the gobbling locust ate; What the gobbling locust left, the munching locust ate; What the munching locust left, the chomping locust ate.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
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Sober up, you drunks! Get in touch with reality - and weep! Your supply of booze is cut off. You're on the wagon, like it or not.
6 For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
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My country's being invaded by an army invincible, past numbering, Teeth like those of a lion, fangs like those of a tiger.
7 It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
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It has ruined my vineyards, stripped my orchards, And clear-cut the country. The landscape's a moonscape.
8 Lament like a virginwearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
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Weep like a young virgin dressed in black, mourning the loss of her fiancé.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.
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Without grain and grapes, worship has been brought to a standstill in the Sanctuary of God. The priests are at a loss. God's ministers don't know what to do.
10 The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
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The fields are sterile. The very ground grieves. The wheat fields are lifeless, vineyards dried up, olive oil gone.
11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
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Dirt farmers, despair! Grape growers, wring your hands! Lament the loss of wheat and barley. All crops have failed.
12 The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
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Vineyards dried up, fig trees withered, Pomegranates, date palms, and apple trees - deadwood everywhere! And joy is dried up and withered in the hearts of the people. Nothing's Going On in the Place of Worship
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
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And also you priests, put on your robes and join the outcry. You who lead people in worship, lead them in lament. Spend the night dressed in gunnysacks, you servants of my God. Nothing's going on in the place of worship, no offerings, no prayers - nothing.
14 Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
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Declare a holy fast, call a special meeting, get the leaders together, Round up everyone in the country. Get them into God's Sanctuary for serious prayer to God.
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
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What a day! Doomsday! God's Judgment Day has come. The Strong God has arrived. This is serious business!
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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Food is just a memory at our tables, as are joy and singing from God's Sanctuary.
17 The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.
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The seeds in the field are dead, barns deserted, Grain silos abandoned. Who needs them? The crops have failed!
18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.
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The farm animals groan - oh, how they groan! The cattle mill around. There's nothing for them to eat. Not even the sheep find anything.
19 To you, O LORD, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
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God! I pray, I cry out to you! The fields are burning up, The country is a dust bowl, forest and prairie fires rage unchecked.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
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Wild animals, dying of thirst, look to you for a drink. Springs and streams are dried up. The whole country is burning up.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.