13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [Joel's] God, for the cereal or meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].
15 Alas for the day! For the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is at hand, and as a destructive tempest from the Almighty will it come. 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed [grain] rots and shrivels under the clods, the garners are desolate and empty, the barns are in ruins because the grain has failed. 18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed and huddle together because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment (are forsaken and made wretched).
19 O Lord, to You will I cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures and folds of the plain and the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field. 20 Even the wild beasts of the field pant and cry to You, for the water brooks are dried up and fire has consumed the pastures and folds of the wilderness and the plain.