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The Word of Yahweh{"Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all caps) in other translations.} that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
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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?
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Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
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The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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{The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."}, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.
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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.
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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.
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Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?
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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.
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How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
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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.
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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.
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