² Raise a signal on a bare hill,
    lift up your voice to them;
    wave the hand and may they enter the gateways of the noblemen.
³ I myself I have commanded my consecrated ones,
    I have also summoned my mighty warriors concerning my anger,
    the ones who exalt over^[a] my majesty.
⁴ A sound, a noise is on the mountains,
    the likeness of many people!
A sound of the roar of the kingdoms,
    of nations gathering!
Yahweh of hosts is mustering an army for battle.
⁵ They are coming from a distant land,
    from the end of the heavens,
Yahweh and the weapons of his indignation,
    to destroy the whole earth.^[b]
6 Wail, for the day of Yahweh is near;
    it will come like destruction from Shaddai!^[c]
7 Therefore all hands will grow slack,
    and every human heart will melt,
⁸     and they will be dismayed.
Pangs and labor pains will seize them;
    they will tremble like a woman giving birth.
They will stare at one another,^[d]
    their faces flushing.^[e]
9 Look! The day of Yahweh is coming,
    cruel and wrath and the burning of anger,
to make the earth a desolation,
    and he will destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not flash forth their light;
    the sun will keep back when it comes out,
    and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
¹¹ And I will punish the world for its evil
    and the wicked for their iniquity.
And I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
    and I will bring the haughtiness of tyrants low.
¹² I will make humanity more rare than gold
    and humankind more than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will quake from its place
because of the wrath of Yahweh of hosts,
    and in the day his anger burns.

like a hunted gazelle or sheep with none to gather them,^[f]
they will each turn to his own people,
    and they will each flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be pierced through,
    and everyone who is carried away will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes;
    their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.^[g]
17 Look! I am stirring the Medes up against them,
who do not value silver
    and do not delight in gold.
¹⁸ And their bows will shatter young men.
    And they will not show mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not look compassionately on children.

²⁰ It will not be inhabited forever,
    and it will not be dwelled in forever;^[i]
and no Arab will pitch a tent there,
    and shepherds will not allow their flocks to lie down there.
²¹ But wild animals will lie down there,
    and their houses will be full of howling creatures,
and the daughters of ostriches^[j] will live there,
    and goats will dance there.
²² And hyenas will answer in its palaces,
    and jackals in the pleasure palaces;
and its time is coming soon,^[k]
    and its days will not be prolonged.