The prophet describes the judgments that shall fall upon the people, and invites them to fasting and prayer.

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

² Listen to this, elders, and pay close attention, all inhabitants of the land. Did this ever happen in your days or in the days of your fathers?

³ Talk this over with your sons, and your sons with their sons, and their sons with another generation.

⁴ The locust has eaten what the caterpillar has left, and the beetle has eaten what the locust has left, and the mildew has eaten what the beetle has left.¹

1. 1:4That which the palmerworm has left, etc: Some understand this literally of the desolation of the land by these insects: others understand it of the different invasions of the Chaldeans, or other enemies.(Challoner)

⁵ Rouse yourselves, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you who delight in drinking wine; for it has been cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a nation has ascended over my land: strong and without number. His teeth are like the teeth of a lion, and his molars are like that of a lion’s young.

⁷ He has put my vineyard into desolation, and he has pulled off the bark of my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and cast it away; its branches have become white.

⁸ Lament like a betrothed virgin, wrapped in sackcloth at the loss of the husband of her youth.¹

1. 1:8This verse has been translated more loosely because a strict translation would obscure the meaning of the verse. The virgin is actually a betrothed virgin; she has married a man, but she is still a virgin because, according to ancient custom, they have not moved in together right away. He died and so she is mourning in sackcloth.(Conte)

⁹ Sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of the Lord; the priests who are ministers of the Lord have mourned.¹

1. 1:9The implication is that only those priests who are true ministers of the Lord have mourned at the loss of sacrifice and libation. The Catholic interpretation of ‘sacrifice and libation’ is the bread and wine of the Eucharist.(Conte)

¹⁰ The region has been depopulated, the soil has mourned. For the wheat has been devastated, the wine has been disfigured, the oil has languished.¹

1. 1:10Again, the Catholic understanding of this verse and its meaning for the Church is that the wheat and wine refers to the Eucharist and the oil refers to the Sacraments that make use of oil (such as Ordination).(Conte)

¹¹ The farmers have been confounded, the vineyard workers have wailed over the crop and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.¹

1. 1:11The vineyard workers (or vintners) wail over the fruit of the vine, because that is their work, and over the barley, because that is their food. In Biblical times, barley was the food of the working poor. The text implies that the ‘frumento’ is the crop of the ‘vinitores,’ so the use of ‘their’ in the translation is fitting.(Conte)

¹² The vineyard is in ruin, and the fig tree has languished. The pomegranate tree, and the palm tree, and the fruit tree, and all the trees of the field have withered. For joy has been thrown into disorder before the sons of men.

¹³ Priests, gird yourselves and lament. Ministers of the altars, wail. Enter, ministers of my God, lie in sackcloth. For sacrifice and libation have passed away from the house of your God.

¹⁴ Sanctify a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God. And cry out to the Lord:

¹⁵ “Ah, ah, ah, the day!” For the day of the Lord is near, and it will arrive, like a devastation, before the powerful.

¹⁶ Has not your nourishment perished from before your eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The mules have rotted in their own manure, the barns have been demolished, the wine cellars have been destroyed, because the grain has been ruined.

¹⁸ Why have the animals groaned, the herds of cattle bellowed? because there is no pasture for them. Yes, and even the flocks of sheep have been lost.

¹⁹ To you, O Lord, I will cry out, because fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the countryside.

²⁰ Yes, and even the beasts of the field have gazed up at you, like the dry ground thirsting for rain, because the fountains of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beauty of the wilderness.