Joel 1:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
4 What the cutter left,
the swarming locust has devoured;
What the swarming locust left,
the hopper has devoured;
What the hopper left,
the consuming locust[a] has devoured.
5 Wake up, you drunkards,[b] and weep;
wail, all you wine drinkers,
Over the new wine,
taken away from your mouths.
6 For a nation[c] invaded my land,
powerful and past counting,
With teeth like a lion’s,
fangs like those of a lioness.
Footnotes
- 1:4 Cutter…swarming locust…hopper…consuming locust: these names may refer to various species of locusts, or to some phases in the insect’s life cycle, or to successive waves of locusts ravaging the countryside.
- 1:5 Drunkards: this metaphor expresses both the urgency behind Joel’s preaching and his ironic assessment of his audience. There are no grapes to process into new wine, yet people view their situation as just another agricultural crisis. Joel argues that the problems they now face are lessons the Lord is using to provide the knowledge they lack.
- 1:6 A nation: the locusts are compared to an invading army, whose numbers are overwhelming. The ravaged landscape resembles the wasteland left behind by marauding troops; the order and peace associated with agricultural productivity (1 Kgs 5:5; Mi 4:4) has been destroyed.
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