Joel

¹ Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand—

² a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.

³ behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.

⁴ they gallop along like cavalry.

⁵ they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

⁶ every face turns pale.

⁷ they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.

⁸ each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks.

⁹ they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.

¹⁰ the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

¹¹ at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

¹² “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

¹³ and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

¹⁴ and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

¹⁵ declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

¹⁶ consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷ weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁸ Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people.

¹⁹ “I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.

²⁰ pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things.

²¹ be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things.

²² for the open pastures are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

²³ rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

²⁴ the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you.

²⁶ and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.

²⁷ that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

²⁸ “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

²⁹ I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

³⁰ and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

³¹ and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

³² on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.