Today's Readings
Joel 1 : 5 - 15
5 | Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth. |
6 | For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. |
7 | He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white. |
8 | Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth. |
9 | The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. |
10 | The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails. |
11 | Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished. |
12 | The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree--All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men. |
13 | Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. |
14 | Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD. |
15 | Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty. |