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.

1  ^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.⁶

^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 vanguard⁷ into ^ethe eastern sea,

and his rear guard⁸ 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 restore⁹ 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  ^{10 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;¹³

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,¹⁴

^hfor the Lord dwells in Zion.”

1  O Lord, you have ^psearched me and known me!

2  You ^qknow when I sit down and when I rise up;

you ^rdiscern my thoughts from afar.

3  You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4  Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, ^syou know it altogether.

5  You ^them me in, behind and before,

and ^ulay your hand upon me.

6  ^vSuch knowledge is ^wtoo wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

7  ^xWhere shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where ^yshall I flee from your presence?

8  ^zIf I ascend to heaven, you are there!

^aIf I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

9  If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10  even there your hand shall ^blead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

11  If I say, ^c“Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

12  ^deven the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

13  For you ^eformed my inward parts;

you ^fknitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.¹

^gWonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15  ^hMy frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in ⁱthe depths of the earth.

16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your ^jbook were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

17  How precious to me are your ^kthoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18  ^lIf I would count them, they are more than ^mthe sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

19  Oh that you would ⁿslay the wicked, O God!

O ^omen of blood, ^pdepart from me!

20  They ^qspeak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies ^rtake your name in vain.²

21  ^sDo I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not ^tloathe those who ^urise up against you?

22  I hate them with complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

23  Search me, O God, and know my heart!

^vTry me and know my thoughts!³

24  And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and ^wlead me in ^xthe way everlasting!⁴

12  I am writing to you, little children,

because ^ryour sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

13  I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know ^shim who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because ^tyou have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,

because ^uyou know the Father.

14  I write to you, fathers,

because you know ^shim who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

because ^tyou are strong,

and the word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one.