2  ^aHear this, ^byou elders;

give ear, ^ball inhabitants of the land!

^cHas such a thing happened in your days,

or in the days of your fathers?

3  ^dTell your children of it,

and let your children tell their children,

and their children to another generation.

4  What ^ethe cutting locust left,

^fthe swarming locust has eaten.

What the swarming locust left,

^gthe hopping locust has eaten,

and what the hopping locust left,

^hthe destroying locust has eaten.

5  Awake, you drunkards, and weep,

and ⁱwail, all you drinkers of wine,

because of ^jthe sweet wine,

for it is cut off from your mouth.

6  For ^ka nation has come up against my land,

^kpowerful and beyond number;

^lits teeth are lions’ teeth,

and it has the fangs of a lioness.

7  It has laid waste my vine

and splintered my ^mfig tree;

it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;

their branches are made white.

8  Lament like a virgin^{1 n}wearing sackcloth

for the bridegroom of her youth.

9  ^oThe grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

from the house of the Lord.

^pThe priests mourn,

^pthe ministers of the Lord.

10  The fields are destroyed,

^qthe ground mourns,

because ^rthe grain is destroyed,

^rthe wine dries up,

the oil languishes.

11  ^sBe ashamed,² O tillers of the soil;

wail, O vinedressers,

for the wheat and the barley,

^tbecause the harvest of the field has perished.

12  The vine dries up;

^uthe fig tree languishes.

Pomegranate, palm, and apple,

all the trees of the field are dried up,

and ^vgladness dries up

from the children of man.

13  ^wPut on sackcloth and lament, ^pO priests;

^xwail, O ministers of the altar.

Go in, ^wpass the night in sackcloth,

^pO ministers of my God!

^yBecause grain offering and drink offering

are withheld from the house of your God.

14  ^zConsecrate a fast;

^zcall a solemn assembly.

Gather ^athe elders

and ^aall the inhabitants of the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.

15  Alas for the day!

^bFor the day of the Lord is near,

and as destruction from the Almighty³ it comes.

16  Is not the food cut off

before our eyes,

^cjoy and gladness

from the house of our God?

17  ^dThe seed shrivels under the clods;⁴

the storehouses are desolate;

the granaries are torn down

because ^ethe grain has dried up.

18  How ^fthe beasts groan!

The herds of cattle are perplexed

because there is no pasture for them;

even the flocks of sheep suffer.⁵

19  To you, ^gO Lord, I call.

^hFor fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

^hand flame has burned

all the trees of the field.

20  Even the beasts of the field ⁱpant for you

because the water brooks are dried up,

^hand fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness.

2  ^jBlow a trumpet in ^kZion;

sound an alarm on ^kmy holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for ^lthe day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

2  ^ma day of darkness and gloom,

^ma day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

ⁿa great and powerful people;

^otheir like has never been before,

nor will be again after them

through the years of all generations.

3  ^pFire devours before them,

and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like ^qthe garden of Eden before them,

but ^rbehind them a desolate wilderness,

and nothing escapes them.

4  ^sTheir appearance is like the appearance of horses,

and like war horses they run.

5  ^tAs with the rumbling of chariots,

they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of ^ua flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

ⁿlike a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

6  Before them peoples are in anguish;

^vall faces grow pale.

7  Like warriors they charge;

like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way;

they do not swerve from their paths.

8  They do not jostle one another;

^weach marches in his path;

they burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

9  ^xThey leap upon the city,

they run upon the walls,

^ythey climb up into the houses,

^ythey enter through the windows ^zlike a thief.

10  ^aThe earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

^bThe sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

11  ^cThe Lord utters his voice

before ^dhis army,

for his camp is exceedingly great;

^ehe who executes his word is powerful.

^fFor the day of the Lord is ^ggreat and very awesome;

^hwho can endure it?

12  “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

ⁱ“return to me with all your heart,

^jwith fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13  and ^krend your hearts and not ^lyour garments.”

Return to the Lord your God,

^mfor he is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;

ⁿand he relents over disaster.

14  ^oWho knows whether he will not turn and relent,

and ^pleave a blessing behind him,

^qa grain offering and a drink offering

for the Lord your God?

15  ^rBlow the trumpet in Zion;

^sconsecrate a fast;

call a solemn assembly;

16  gather the people.

^tConsecrate the congregation;

assemble the elders;

^ugather the children,

even nursing infants.

^vLet the bridegroom leave his room,

and the bride her chamber.

17  ^wBetween the ^xvestibule and the ^yaltar

^zlet the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep

and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,

and make not your heritage a reproach,

a byword among the nations.¹

^aWhy should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?’”

18  ^bThen the Lord became jealous for his land

^cand had pity on his people.

19  The Lord answered and said to his people,

“Behold, ^dI am sending to you

grain, wine, and oil,

^dand you will be satisfied;

and I will no more make you

a reproach among the nations.

20  “I will remove the northerner far from you,

and drive him into a parched and desolate land,

his vanguard² into ^ethe eastern sea,

and his rear guard³ into ^fthe western sea;

^gthe stench and foul smell of him will rise,

for he has done great things.

21  “Fear not, O land;

be glad and rejoice,

for ^hthe Lord has done great things!

22  Fear not, ⁱyou beasts of the field,

for ^jthe pastures of the wilderness are green;

^kthe tree bears its fruit;

the fig tree and ^kvine give their full yield.

23  ^l“Be glad, O children of Zion,

and ^lrejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given ^mthe early rain for your vindication;

he has poured down for you abundant rain,

^mthe early and ⁿthe latter rain, as before.

24  “The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25  I will restore⁴ to you the years

that ^othe swarming locust has eaten,

^othe hopper, ^othe destroyer, and ^othe cutter,

^pmy great army, which I sent among you.

26  ^q“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

And my people ^rshall never again be put to shame.

27  ^sYou shall know that I am ^tin the midst of Israel,

and that ^uI am the Lord your God ^vand there is none else.

And my people ^rshall never again be put to shame.

28  ^{5 w}“And it shall come to pass afterward,

that ^xI will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

^yyour sons and ^zyour daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

29  ^aEven on the male and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

9  Proclaim this among the nations:

^sConsecrate for war;²

stir up the mighty men.

Let all the men of war draw near;

let them come up.

10  ^tBeat your plowshares into swords,

and ^tyour pruning hooks into spears;

let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11  ^uHasten and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves there.

^vBring down your warriors, O Lord.

12  Let the nations stir themselves up

and come up to ^wthe Valley of Jehoshaphat;

^xfor there I will sit to judge

all the surrounding nations.

13  ^yPut in the sickle,

^zfor the harvest is ripe.

^aGo in, tread,

^afor the winepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their evil is great.

14  Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For ^bthe day of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

15  ^cThe sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

16  ^dThe Lord roars from Zion,

and ^dutters his voice from Jerusalem,

^eand the heavens and the earth quake.

But the Lord is ^fa refuge to his people,

a stronghold to the people of Israel.

17  ^g“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,

^hwho dwells in Zion, ⁱmy holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

and ^jstrangers shall never again pass through it.

18  “And in that day

^kthe mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and the hills shall flow with milk,

and ^lall the streambeds of Judah

shall flow with water;

^mand a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord

and water the Valley of ⁿShittim.

19  ^o“Egypt shall become a desolation

and ^pEdom a desolate wilderness,

^qfor the violence done to the people of Judah,

because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20  ^rBut Judah shall be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem to all generations.

21  ^sI will avenge their blood,

blood I have not avenged,³

^hfor the Lord dwells in Zion.”

^g“The Lord roars from Zion

and utters his voice from Jerusalem;

^hthe pastures of the shepherds mourn,

and the ⁱtop of ^jCarmel withers.”

^k“For three transgressions of ^lDamascus,

and for four, ^lI will not revoke the punishment,³

because they have threshed ^mGilead

with threshing sledges of iron.

4  ⁿSo I will send a fire upon the house of ^oHazael,

and it shall devour the strongholds of ^oBen-hadad.

5  I will ^pbreak the gate-bar of ^lDamascus,

and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of ^qAven,⁴

and him who holds the scepter from ^rBeth-eden;

and the people of ^sSyria shall go into exile to ^tKir,”

says the Lord.

^k“For three transgressions of ^uGaza,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because ^vthey carried into exile a whole people

to deliver them up to Edom.

7  So I will send a fire upon the wall of ^uGaza,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

8  I will cut off the inhabitants from ^wAshdod,

and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;

I will turn my hand against Ekron,

and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”

says the Lord God.

^k“For three transgressions of ^xTyre,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because they delivered up a whole people to Edom,

and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.

10  So I will send a fire upon the wall of ^xTyre,

and it shall devour her strongholds.”

^k“For three transgressions of ^yEdom,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

^ybecause he pursued his brother with the sword

^zand cast off all pity,

^aand his anger tore perpetually,

^aand he kept his wrath forever.

12  So I will send a fire upon ^bTeman,

and it shall devour the strongholds of ^cBozrah.”

^k“For three transgressions of the ^dAmmonites,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because ^ethey have ripped open pregnant women in ^fGilead,

that they might enlarge their border.

14  So I will kindle a fire in the wall of ^gRabbah,

^hand it shall devour her strongholds,

with shouting on the day of battle,

^hwith a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;

15  and ⁱtheir king shall go into exile,

he and his princes⁵ together,”

says the Lord.

^k“For three transgressions of ^jMoab,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,¹

because ^khe burned to lime

the bones of the king of Edom.

2  So I will send a fire upon Moab,

and it shall devour the strongholds of ^lKerioth,

and Moab shall die amid uproar,

amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;

3  ^mI will cut off the ruler from its midst,

and will kill ^mall its princes² with him,”

says the Lord.

ⁿ“For three transgressions of Judah,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because ^othey have rejected the law of the Lord,

and have not kept his statutes,

but ^ptheir lies have led them astray,

those after which their fathers walked.

5  So ^qI will send a fire upon Judah,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

ⁿ“For three transgressions of Israel,

and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,

because ^rthey sell the righteous for ^ssilver,

and the needy for a pair of sandals—

7  those who trample the head of the poor ^tinto the dust of the earth

and ^uturn aside the way of the afflicted;

^va man and his father go in to the same girl,

so that my holy name is profaned;

8  they lay themselves down beside every altar

on garments ^wtaken in pledge,

and in the house of their God they drink

the wine of those who have been fined.

9  “Yet ^xit was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,

^ywhose height was like the height of the cedars

and who was as strong as the oaks;

^zI destroyed his fruit above

and his roots beneath.

10  ^aAlso it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt

^band led you forty years in the wilderness,

^xto possess the land of the Amorite.

11  And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,

and some of your young men for ^cNazirites.

Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”

declares the Lord.

12  “But you made the Nazirites ^ddrink wine,

and commanded the prophets,

saying, ^e‘You shall not prophesy.’

13  “Behold, I will press you down in your place,

as a cart full of sheaves presses down.

14  ^fFlight shall perish from the swift,

^fand the strong shall not retain his strength,

^gnor shall the mighty save his life;

15  he who handles the bow shall not stand,

and he who is ^hswift of foot shall not save himself,

ⁱnor shall he who rides the horse save his life;

16  and he who is stout of heart among the mighty

shall flee away naked in that day,”

declares the Lord.