Gray first light on bare terraced hills: an old fig tree with branches peeled white beside a low stone terrace wall, a few locusts on the bare vine canes, and an empty pale sky.

The locusts

Joel 1

Something you counted on is gone. What do you do with the silence after?

20 verses≈ 4 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1The locustsA ruined land, and a call to cry outChapter 1
2:1–17The Day of the LORDAn army, and ‘return to Me’
2:18–32The LORD answersPlenty restored, His Spirit poured out
3The nations judgedThe valley of decision, and Zion’s spring

The Invasion of Locusts

This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Joel

Joel

Hear this, O elders;

and give ear, all who dwell in the land.

Has anything like this ever happened in your days

or in the days of your fathers?

Tell it to your children;

let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the next generation.

Joel

A desert locust clings to a dry grass stalk in low golden sunlight, its long jointed hopping legs folded and clear.

What the devouring locust has left,

the swarming locust has eaten;

what the swarming locust has left,

the young locust has eaten;

and what the young locust has left,

the destroying locust has eaten.

Joel

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep;

wail, all you drinkers of wine,

because of the sweet wine,

for it has been cut off from your mouth.

God

Reflect

Stripped bare

What has been stripped from your life that you thought would always be there? Have you said it to God? Write it down, and write it to Him.

A Call to Mourning

Joel

Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth,

grieving for the husband of her youth.

Joel

Joel

Grain and drink offerings have been cut off

from the house of the LORD;

the priests are in mourning,

those who minister before the LORD.

Joel

A Call to Repentance

Joel

Night in a stone-paved court lit by one small clay oil lamp: three priests seen from behind sit on the paving in dark sackcloth with ash on their heads, a cold altar a dark shape beyond.

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;

wail, O ministers of the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,

O ministers of my God,

because the grain and drink offerings

are withheld from the house of your God.

Joel

Consecrate a fast;

proclaim a solemn assembly!

Gather the elders

and all the residents of the land

to the house of the LORD your God,

and cry out to the LORD.

Joel 1:14

Question

Quick question

The land is stripped and the altar is cold. Someone has to call the people together.

Who does Joel call to lead the mourning?

Joel

Has not the food been cut off

before our very eyes—

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

Joel

Joel

The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods;

the storehouses are in ruins;

the granaries are broken down,

for the grain has withered away.

Joel

A few thin brown cattle and a small flock of sheep wander a bare brown hillside under a hazy sky, heads low, beside a dry stone trough.

How the cattle groan!

The herds wander in confusion

because they have no pasture.

Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

Joel

A burnt pasture of black stubble and scorched trees above a dry stony streambed, a lone gazelle standing at the dry bed with its head lowered, a pale hazy sky above.

To You, O LORD, I call,

for fire has consumed the open pastures

and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

Even the beasts of the field pant for You,

for the streams of water have dried up,

and fire has consumed the open pastures.

0:16

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

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Joel 1

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A verse to carry with you

Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

Joel 1:14

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