The actual, original, first printing of the 1611 King James Version (‘HE’ Bible) — Joel Chapter 1.

CHAP. I.

1 Ioel, declaring sundry iudgements of God, exhorteth to obserue them, 8 and to mourne. 14 He prescribeth a fast, for complaint.

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¹ The word of the Lord that came to Ioel the sonne of Pethuel.

² Heare this, yee olde men, and giue eare, all yee inhabitants of the lande: Hath this been in your dayes, or euen in the dayes of your fathers?

³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

⁴ That which the palmer worme hath left, hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worme eaten; and that which the canker-worme hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten.⁴

⁵ Awake ye drunkards, and weepe, and howle all yee drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶ For a nation is come vp vpon my lande, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lyon, and he hath the cheeke-teeth of a great lyon.

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⁷ He hath laide my vine waste: and barked my figge-tree: hee hath made it cleane bare, and cast it away, the branches thereof are made white.⁷

⁸ ¶ Lament like a virgine girded with sackecloth for the husband of her youth.

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⁹ The meate offring and the drinke offering is cut off from the house of the Lord, the Priestes the Lords ministers mourne.

¹⁰ The field is wasted, the lande mourneth; for the corne is wasted: the new wine is dried vp, the oyle languisheth.¹⁰

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¹¹ Be yee ashamed, O yee husbandmen: howle, O yee vine-dressers, for the wheate and for the barley; because the haruest of the field is perished.

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¹² The vine is dried vp, and the figgetree languisheth, the pomegranate tree, the palme tree also and the apple tree, euen all the trees of the field are withered: because ioy is withered away from the sonnes of men.

¹³ Gird your selues, and lament, yee Priests: howle, ye ministers of the Altar: come, lie all night in sackecloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drinke offering is withholden from the house of your God.

¹⁴ ¶ Sanctifie yee a fast: call a solemne assembly: gather the Elders, and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry vnto the Lord:¹⁴

¹⁵ Alas for the day: for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almightie shall it come.¹⁵

¹⁶ Is not the meate cut off before your eyes, yea ioy and gladnesse from the house of our God?

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¹⁷ The seede is rotten vnder their clods: the garners are laide desolate: the barnes are broken downe, for the corne is withered.¹⁷

¹⁸ How doe the beastes grone? the heards of cattell are perplexed, because they haue no pasture, yea the flockes of sheepe are made desolate.

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¹⁹ O Lord, to thee will I crie: for the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field.¹⁹

²⁰ The beasts of the field crie also vnto thee: for the riuers of waters are dried vp, and the fire hath deuoured the pastures of the wildernesse.

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