Joel opens with an unprecedented devastation in the land described in terms of successive waves consuming what remains. The language centers on a locust-like plague that strips the land. See Joel 1:4.
Joel Joel 1:4–7 depicts an unstoppable ruin moving in waves: what one group of locusts leaves, another finishes. The result is not just damaged crops but a collapse of ordinary pleasures and livelihoods. Wine-drinkers are told to snap out of their numbness and grieve because the supply is gone. These verses sit early in Joel’s opening description of a disaster overwhelming the land. The writing first presents the devastation as a concrete, visible event (repeated “left… eaten” lines), then turns to direct address, calling specific people to respond (“Wake up… weep… wail”).
Joel 1:4–7 presents a real, public disaster described as coming in waves. The repeated “left… eaten” lines portray a process that feels unstoppable and total. The loss is not only agricultural; it reaches into ordinary social life, shown by the sudden absence of “sweet wine” and the interruption of normal feasting.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Joel 1:4, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
4What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.