Joel 1

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¹This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel: ✦ ²Hear 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? ✦ ³Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. ✦ ⁴What 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. ✦ ⁵Wake 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. ✦ ⁶For 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. ✦ ⁷It 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. ✦ ⁸Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth. ✦ ⁹Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD. ✦ ¹⁰The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ✦ ¹¹Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. ✦ ¹²The 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. ✦ ¹³Put 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. ✦ ¹⁴Consecrate 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. ✦ ¹⁵Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ✦ ¹⁶Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God? ✦ ¹⁷The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ✦ ¹⁸How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ✦ ¹⁹To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ✦ ²⁰Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Joel 1 ·16 Joel 2 ·13 Isa 24 ·6 Exod 10 ·4 Jer 9 ·4 Hos 9 ·4 Amos 4 ·4 Jer 48 ·3

Christ at the center

The promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the call to 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD' are fulfilled at Pentecost in the name of Jesus.

How Joel 1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Joel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Joel 1YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Joel 1David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JoelMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Joel 1Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

Joel 2 →