Thursday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: 2Verse 2. 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? 3Verse 3. Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. 4Verse 4. 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. 5Verse 5. 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. 6Verse 6. For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. 7Verse 7. It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white. 8Verse 8. Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. 9Verse 9. 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. 10Verse 10. The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. 11Verse 11. Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. 12Verse 12. The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard— are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up. 13Verse 13. 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. 14Verse 14. 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. 15Verse 15. Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 16Verse 16. Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes — joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17Verse 17. The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. 18Verse 18. How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. 19Verse 19. To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. 20Verse 20. Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

1Verse 1. Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people. 2Verse 2. If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people. 3Verse 3. “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” 4Verse 4. “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. 5Verse 5. Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity. 6Verse 6. You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” 7Verse 7. Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people? 8Verse 8. Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. 9Verse 9. Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?” 10Verse 10. I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away. 11Verse 11. “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.” 12Verse 12. Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it? 13Verse 13. And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice. 14Verse 14. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.” 15Verse 15. Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16Verse 16. I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”