Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 This is the Lord's message to Joel son of Pethuel.
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The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the 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, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, Or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children about it; they will tell their children, who in turn will tell the next generation.
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Tell your children about it, And have your children tell their children, And their children, another 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 swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has 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, because of the sweet wine; For it is cut off from your mouth.
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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For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has 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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He has laid my vine waste, And stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made 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 dressed in sackcloth for the husband 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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The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
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 field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, And the oil languishes.
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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Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; For the wheat and for the barley; For the harvest of the field has perished.
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 has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, Even all of the trees of the field are withered; For joy has withered away from the sons of men.
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 and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, For the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.
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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Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, And all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, And cry to Yahweh.
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 the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, And it will come as 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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Isn't the food cut off before our 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 rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
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 animals groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
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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Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned 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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Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, For the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.