Joel 1:8-12

A Call to Lament

1:8 Wail like a young virgin clothed in sackcloth,

lamenting the death of her husband-to-be.

1:9 No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings

to the temple of the Lord anymore.

So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

1:10 The crops of the fields have been destroyed.

The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished.

The fresh wine has dried up;

the olive oil languishes.

1:11 Be distressed, farmers;

wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.

For the harvest of the field has perished.

1:12 The vine has dried up;

the fig tree languishes –

the pomegranate, date, and apple as well.

In fact, all the trees of the field have dried up.

Indeed, the joy of the people has dried up!