An Invasion of Locusts

Joel 1

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

2 a Hear this, b you elders;
give ear, b all inhabitants of the land!
c Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
 3 d Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.

4 What e the cutting locust left,
f the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
g the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
h the destroying locust has eaten.

5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and i wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of j the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
 6 For k a nation has come up against my land,
k powerful and beyond number;
l its teeth are lions' teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
 7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my m fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin 1 n wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
 9 o The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
p The priests mourn,
p the ministers of the Lord.
 10 The fields are destroyed,
q the ground mourns,
because r the grain is destroyed,
r the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.

11 s Be ashamed, 2 O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
t because the harvest of the field has perished.
 12 The vine dries up;
u the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and v gladness dries up
from the children of man.

  1. Cross References
    Hosea 5:1
    Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.
  2. Cross References
    Joel 1:14
    Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
  3. Cross References
    Joel 1:14
    Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
  4. Cross References
    Joel 2:2
    A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 78:4
    We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
  6. Cross References
    Joel 2:25
    I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
    Amos 4:9
    I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," declares the Lord.
  7. Cross References
    Amos 7:1
    This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
    Exodus 10:4
    For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.
  8. Cross References
    Joel 2:25
    I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
    Psalms 105:34
    He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number.
    Nahum 3:15
    There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper!
  9. Cross References
    Joel 2:25
    I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
    Psalms 78:46
    He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
  10. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:11
    There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.
  11. Cross References
    Joel 3:18
    And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
    Isaiah 49:26
    I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
    Amos 9:13
    Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.
  12. Cross References
    Joel 2:2
    A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
  13. Cross References
    Joel 2:2
    A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
  14. Cross References
    Revelation 9:7 - 8
    In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces.
  15. Cross References
    Joel 1:12
    The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
  16. Cross References
    Joel 1:13
    Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
    2 Samuel 3:31
    Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, "Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner." And King David followed the bier.
  17. Cross References
    Joel 1:13
    Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
    Joel 2:14
    Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
  18. Cross References
    Joel 2:17
    Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, "Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'
    Isaiah 61:6
    But you shall be called the priests of the Lord ; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.
    Ezekiel 45:4
    It shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.
  19. Cross References
    Joel 2:17
    Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, "Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?
    Isaiah 61:6
    But you shall be called the priests of the Lord ; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.
    Ezekiel 45:4
    It shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary.
  20. Cross References
    Hosea 4:3
    Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
  21. Cross References
    Hosea 2:9
    Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.
  22. Cross References
    Hosea 2:9
    Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.
  23. Cross References
    Jeremiah 14:4
    Because of the ground that is dismayed, since there is no rain on the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.
  24. Cross References
    Joel 1:17
    The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.
  25. Cross References
    Joel 1:7
    It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
  26. Cross References
    Isaiah 24:11
    There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.
    Jeremiah 48:33
    Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not the shout of joy.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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