Font Size
Joel 1
Easy-to-Read Version
Joel 1
Easy-to-Read Version
Locusts Will Destroy the Crops
1 Joel son of Pethuel received this message from the Lord:
2 Leaders, listen to this message!
Listen to me, all you people who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your life?
Did anything like this happen during your fathers’ lifetime?
3 You will tell these things to your children,
and your children will tell their children,
and your grandchildren will tell the people of the next generation.
4 What the cutting locust[a] has left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
And what the swarming locust has left,
the hopping locust has eaten.
And what the hopping locust has left,
the destroying locust has eaten!
The Locusts—A Powerful Army
5 Drunks, wake up and cry!
All of you who drink wine, cry
because your sweet wine is finished.
You will not taste it again.
6 A powerful nation came to attack my land.
Its soldiers were too many to count.
Its weapons were as sharp as a lion’s teeth
and as powerful as a lion’s jaw.
7 It destroyed my grapevine.
Its good vines withered and died.
It destroyed my fig tree,
stripped off the bark and threw it away.
The People Cry
8 Cry like a young woman crying
because the man she was ready to marry has died.
9 Priests, servants of the Lord, cry
because there will be no more grain and drink offerings in the Lord’s Temple.
10 The fields are ruined.
Even the ground is crying
because the grain is destroyed;
the new wine is dried up,
and the olive oil is gone.
11 Be sad, farmers!
Cry loudly for the grapes,
for the wheat, and for the barley,
because the harvest in the field is ruined.
12 The vines have become dry,
and the fig tree is dying.
All the trees in the field—
the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple—have withered.
And happiness among the people has died.
13 Priests, put on sackcloth and cry loudly.
Servants of the altar, cry loudly.
Servants of my God, you will sleep in sackcloth,
because there will be no more grain and drink offerings in God’s Temple.
The Terrible Destruction of the Locusts
14 Tell the people that there will be a special time of fasting. Call them together for a special meeting. Bring the leaders and everyone living in the land together at the Temple of the Lord your God, and pray to the Lord.
15 Be sad because the Lord’s special day is near. At that time punishment will come like an attack from God All-Powerful. 16 Our food is gone. Joy and happiness are gone from the Temple of our God. 17 We planted seeds, but the seeds became dry and dead lying in the soil. Our plants are dry and dead. Our barns are empty and falling down.
18 The animals are hungry and groaning. The herds of cattle wander around confused because they have no grass to eat. The sheep are dying.[b] 19 Lord, I am calling to you for help. Fire has changed our green fields into a desert. Flames have burned all the trees in the field. 20 Wild animals also need your help. The streams are dry—there is no water! Fire has changed our green fields into a desert.
Joel 1
New International Version
Joel 1
New International Version
1 The word of the Lord that came(A) to Joel(B) son of Pethuel.
An Invasion of Locusts
2 Hear this,(C) you elders;(D)
listen, all who live in the land.(E)
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?(F)
3 Tell it to your children,(G)
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.(H)
4 What the locust(I) swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left(J)
other locusts[a] have eaten.(K)
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;(L)
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched(M) from your lips.
6 A nation has invaded my land,
a mighty army without number;(N)
it has the teeth(O) of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste(P) my vines
and ruined my fig trees.(Q)
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.
8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth(R)
grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings(S)
are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,(T)
those who minister before the Lord.
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;(U)
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine(V) is dried up,
the olive oil fails.(W)
11 Despair, you farmers,(X)
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,(Y)
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.(Z)
12 The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;(AA)
the pomegranate,(AB) the palm and the apple[b] tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.(AC)
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
A Call to Lamentation
13 Put on sackcloth,(AD) you priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister(AE) before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings(AF)
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast;(AG)
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land(AH)
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out(AI) to the Lord.(AJ)
15 Alas for that(AK) day!
For the day of the Lord(AL) is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[c](AM)
16 Has not the food been cut off(AN)
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness(AO)
from the house of our God?(AP)
17 The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.[d](AQ)
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;(AR)
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.(AS)
Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.