| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. | 1The LORD gave this message to Joel son of Pethuel. Mourning over the Locust Plague |
| 2Hear 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? | 2Hear this, you leaders of the people. Listen, all who live in the land. In all your history, has anything like this happened before? |
| 3Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. | 3Tell your children about it in the years to come, and let your children tell their children. Pass the story down from generation to generation. |
| 4That which the palmerworm 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 caterpiller eaten. | 4After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too! |
| 5Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. | 5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you wine-drinkers! All the grapes are ruined, and all your sweet wine is gone. |
| 6For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. | 6A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness. |
| 7He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. | 7It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare. |
| 8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. | 8Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband. |
| 9The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD'S ministers, mourn. | 9For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of the LORD. So the priests are in mourning. The ministers of the LORD are weeping. |
| 10The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. | 10The fields are ruined, the land is stripped bare. The grain is destroyed, the grapes have shriveled, and the olive oil is gone. |
| 11Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. | 11Despair, all you farmers! Wail, all you vine growers! Weep, because the wheat and barley— all the crops of the field—are ruined. |
| 12The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. | 12The grapevines have dried up, and the fig trees have withered. The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees— all the fruit trees—have dried up. And the people’s joy has dried up with them. |
| 13Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. | 13Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests! Wail, you who serve before the altar! Come, spend the night in burlap, you ministers of my God. For there is no grain or wine to offer at the Temple of your God. |
| 14Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, | 14Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring the leaders and all the people of the land into the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to him there. |
| 15Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. | 15The day of the LORD is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be! |
| 16Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? | 16Our food disappears before our very eyes. No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God. |
| 17The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. | 17The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns stand empty, and granaries are abandoned. |
| 18How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. | 18How the animals moan with hunger! The herds of cattle wander about confused, because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery. |
| 19O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. | 19LORD, help us! The fire has consumed the wilderness pastures, and flames have burned up all the trees. |
| 20The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. | 20Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures. |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
|
