Joel 1:8–18

⁸Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,

grieving for the husband of her youth.

⁹Grain and drink offerings have been cut off

from the house of the LORD;

the priests are in mourning,

those who minister before the LORD.

¹⁰The field is ruined;

the land mourns.

For the grain is destroyed,

the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

¹¹Be dismayed, O farmers,

wail, O vinedressers,

over the wheat and barley,

because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹²The grapevine is dried up,

and the fig tree is withered;

the pomegranate, palm, and apple—

all the trees of the orchard— are withered.

Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;

wail, O ministers of the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God,

because the grain and drink offerings

are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Consecrate a fast;

proclaim a solemn assembly!

Gather the elders

and all the residents of the land

to the house of the LORD your God,

and cry out to the LORD.

¹⁵Alas for the day!

For the Day of the LORD is near,

and it will come

as destruction from the Almighty.^b

¹⁶Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes —

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods;

the storehouses are in ruins;

the granaries are broken down,

for the grain has withered away.

¹⁸How the cattle groan!

The herds wander in confusion

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.