Locusts eat all the plants in Israel
1 This is the Lord's message that he gave to Joel, son of Pethuel.
1:1When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as the Hebrew name ‘Yahweh’. It is God's own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there. 2 You leaders of Israel, listen to this!
Listen carefully, everyone who lives in this country.
Nothing like this has happened while you have been alive.
And it never happened when your ancestors were alive.
3 Tell your children about it.
They must tell it to their children,
who must also tell their own children.
4 Great armies of locusts have eaten all our crops.
Any leaves that first army of locusts left,
the second army has eaten.
And anything that the second army left,
the next army has eaten.
Another army of locusts has eaten what remains.
And finally another army has completely destroyed everything.
1:4Each crowd of locusts was like an army that was attacking the land. There were four different kinds of locusts in each army.
5 Wake up and weep, you people who have drunk too much wine!
Everyone who likes to drink wine, cry loudly!
Weep, because your new wine has disappeared.
Nothing remains for you to drink!
6 A great army has attacked our land.
It has too many soldiers for us to count!
They have teeth like a lion's teeth.
Their teeth are strong and sharp.
7 They have destroyed our vines.
They have cut our fig trees into pieces.
They have cut off the bark
so that the branches are white.
1:7The bark is the thin wood that covers the branches.
Joel tells the people to be sad and cry
8 Cry loudly, like a young woman who is wearing sackcloth.
She is crying at the funeral of the man that she hoped to marry.
9 There is no grain or wine that we can bring
as offerings to the Lord's temple.
So the priests who serve the Lord are weeping.
10 The fields have no crops in them.
The ground is dry and empty.
There is no grain.
There are no grapes to make new wine.
There is no olive oil.
11 You farmers should be very upset.
You people who take care of the vines must cry loudly.
Cry because there is no wheat or barley.
There are no crops to bring home for food.
12 The vines and the fig trees have no water
and they are dying.
There are no pomegranates, dates or apples on the trees.
None of the trees have any fruit.
And none of the people have any joy.
