## The Locusts Bring Desolation 

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The word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 

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Hear this, O elders, And give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Has _anything like_ this happened in your days Or in your fathers' days? 

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Recount about it to your sons, And _let_ your sons _recount about it to_ their sons, And their sons to the next generation. 

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What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has consumed; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has consumed; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has consumed. 

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Awake, drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth. 

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For a nation has come up against my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness. 

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It has made my vine a desolation And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast _them_ away; Their branches have become white. 

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Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth. 

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The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of Yahweh. The priests mourn, The ministers of Yahweh. 

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The field is destroyed; The land mourns, For the grain is destroyed, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil fails. 

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Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley, Because the harvest of the field perishes. 

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The vine dries up, And the fig tree fails; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up From the sons of men. 

## The Day of Yahweh Is Near 

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Gird yourselves _with sackcloth_ And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. 

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Set apart a fast as holy, Call for a solemn assembly; Gather the elders _And_ all the inhabitants of the land To the house of Yahweh your God, And cry out to Yahweh. 

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Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 

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Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God? 

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The seeds shrivel under their clods; The storehouses are desolate; The barns are pulled down, For the grain is dried up. 

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How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep suffer. 

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To You, O Yahweh, I cry; For fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field. 

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Even the beasts of the field pant for You; For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has consumed the pastures of the wilderness.