Study Desk

The word of the Lord that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.

Heare this, yee olde men, and giue eare, all yee inhabitants of the lande: Hath this been in your dayes, or euen in the dayes of your fathers?

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

That which the palmer worme hath left, hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worme eaten; and that which the canker-worme hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten.

Awake ye drunkards, and weepe, and howle all yee drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation is come vp vpon my lande, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lyon, and he hath the cheeke-teeth of a great lyon.

He hath laide my vine waste: and barked my figge-tree: hee hath made it cleane bare, and cast it away, the branches thereof are made white.

Lament like a virgine girded with sackecloth for the husband of her youth.

The meate offring and the drinke offering is cut off from the house of the Lord, the Priestes the Lords ministers mourne.

The field is wasted, the lande mourneth; for the corne is wasted: the new wine is dried vp, the oyle languisheth.

Be yee ashamed, O yee husbandmen: howle, O yee vine-dressers, for the wheate and for the barley; because the haruest of the field is perished.

The vine is dried vp, and the figgetree languisheth, the pomegranate tree, the palme tree also and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the field are withered: because ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men.

Gird your selues, and lament, yee Priests: howle, ye ministers of the Altar: come, lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drinke offering is withholden from the house of your God.

Sanctifie yee a fast: call a solemne assembly: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry vnto the Lord:

Alas for the day: for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almightie shall it come.

Is not the meate cut off before your eyes, yea ioy and gladnesse from the house of our God?

The seede is rotten vnder their clods: the garners are laide desolate: the barnes are broken downe, for the corne is withered.

How doe the beastes grone? the heards of cattell are perplexed, because they haue no pasture, yea the flockes of sheepe are made desolate.

O Lord, to thee will I crie: for the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field.

The beasts of the field crie also vnto thee: for the riuers of waters are dried vp, and the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse.