Joel 1:13-20

English Standard Version

A Call to Repentance

¹³^(A)Put on sackcloth and lament, ^(B)O priests;
    ^(C)wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, ^(D)pass the night in sackcloth,
    ^(E)O ministers of my God!
^(F)Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴^(G)Consecrate a fast;
    ^(H)call a solemn assembly.
Gather ^(I)the elders
    and ^(J)all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!
^(K)For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty^[a] it comes.
¹⁶Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
^(L)joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷^(M)The seed shrivels under the clods;^[b]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because ^(N)the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How ^(O)the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.^[c]

¹⁹To you, ^(P)O Lord, I call.
^(Q)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(R)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field ^(S)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(T)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.