Joel 1

₂You who are leaders must listen.

All of you who live in the land,

listen to what the Lord says.

The things that are happening now

have never happened before.

₃You must tell it to your children and

your children must tell it to their children,

and their children must also tell it to their children.

₄Swarms of locusts have come.

There have been 4 swarms,

and they have eaten and destroyed all the plants.

₅The people who are always drunk

must wake up and cry.

Everyone who loves wine must cry

because they will take away your wine.

₆The locusts are like a big army

of strong soldiers

and they have attacked our land.

They have sharp teeth like the teeth of lions.

₇They have eaten everything that was on the fig trees

and destroyed the vineyards.

They have also eaten the bark of the trees

and then spat it out.

There is nothing left on the branches.

₈You must mourn. You must cry

like a young girl who mourns because

the man who is engaged to her has died.

₉There are no grain-offerings

and drink-offerings at the temple of the Lord.

That is why the priests who work for the Lord are mourning.

₁₀Nothing grows on the wheat_fields.

The ground is dry. There is no wheat,

the grapes are dry and dead,

and the olives are also dead.

₁₁The farmers don't know what to do.

They cry because there is no wheat or barley.

Nothing grows in the fields,

so there is nothing that they can harvest.

₁₂The vines and fig trees are dry and dead,

the pomegranate trees are dead,

and also the palm trees and apple trees.

All the trees are dry and dead.

There is nothing that can make the people happy.

₁₃The priests who work at the altar

must put on sack-cloth.

They will cry and mourn.

These people who work for my God

must also put on sack-cloth

when they go to sleep,

because there are no grain-offerings and

drink-offerings in the temple of their God.

₁₄They must consecrate a day to the Lord

and everyone must fast on that day.

They must call all the leaders

and everyone who lives in the land

to come together in the temple

of the Lord their God

and they must ask the Lord to help them.

₁₅The day_of_the_Lord is near.

On that day everyone will be afraid.

The Almighty God wants to destroy everything.

₁₆We see there is nothing to eat.

No one is happy in the temple of our God.

No one is rejoicing, and no one is happy.

₁₇The wheat seeds

are still under the dry ground

and the store rooms are empty.

The places where we store wheat

are falling down, because there is no wheat.

₁₈The cattle make a noise and complain.

They go everywhere,

because there is nothing to eat.

The sheep and goats also suffer.

₁₉Lord, I pray to You. Please help us.

A fire has burnt down all the trees

and the fields where the animals must eat.

₂₀Also the wild animals are waiting

for You to help them

because there is no water in the rivers,

and the fields where they must eat

have burnt down.