ll the
trees of the field are withered: because joy is withdrawn from the
children of men.

1:13. Gird yourselves, and lament, O ye priests, howl, ye ministers of
the altars: go in, lie in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: because
sacrifice and libation is cut off from the house of your God.

1:14. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather together the
ancients, all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God:
and cry ye to the Lord:

1:15. Ah, ah, ah, for the day: because the day of the Lord is at hand,
and it shall come like destruction from the mighty.

1:16 Is not your food cut off before your eyes, joy and gladness from
the house of our God?

1:17. The beasts have rotted in their dung, the barns are destroyed, the
storehouses are broken down: because the corn is confounded.

1:18. Why did the beasts groan, why did the herds of cattle low?
because there is no pasture for them: yea, and the flocks of sheep are
perished.

1:19. To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the
beautiful places of the wilderness: and the flame hath burnt all the
trees of the country.

1:20. Yea, and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a
garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are
dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

Joel Chapter 2

2:1. Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain,
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord
cometh, because it is nigh at hand.

The day of the Lord... That is, the time when he will execute justice
upon sinners.

2:2. A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and
whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the
mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be
after it, even to the years of generation and generation.

A numerous and strong people... The Assyrians, or Chaldeans. Others
understand all this of an army of locusts laying waste the land.

2:3. Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning
flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a
desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

2:4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they
shall run like horsemen.

2:5. They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of
mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, a