The word of Jehovah that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Hear 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?
Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation:
that which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine: for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number: his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a lioness.
He hath made my vine a desolation, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: its branches are made white.
Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
The oblation and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.
The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Be ashamed, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley: because the harvest of the field hath perished.
The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm also and the apple-tree; all the trees of the field are withered, yea, joy is withered away from the children of men.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the oblation and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
Hallow a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seeds are rotten under their clods, the granaries are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are bewildered, for they have no pasture; the flocks of sheep also are in suffering.
To thee, Jehovah, do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned up all the trees of the field.
The beasts of the field also cry unto thee; for the water-courses are dried, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Canonical academic citations for Joel 1 (DBT) — copy in your preferred format.
Joel 1 (DBT). Prime Bible, accessed July 25, 2026. https://primebible.com/dbt/joel/1.
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A devastating, multi-wave locust invasion strips Judah’s crops, halts temple offerings, and signals divine judgment, prompting Joel to summon elders, priests, drunkards, and farmers to lament and tell future generations of this unprecedented calamity.
Locust plague imagery calling Judah to repentance and promising the Day of the Lord.
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