⁶ Wail, for the ^(A)day of the Lord is near!
It will come as ^(B)destruction from ^[a]the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore ^(C)all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s ^(D)heart will melt.
⁸ They will be ^(E)terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will ^(F)writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
⁹ Behold, ^(G)the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the ^(H)stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light;
The ^(I)sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹ Thus I will ^(J)punish the world for its evil
And the ^(K)wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the ^(L)arrogance of the proud
And abase the ^(M)haughtiness of the ^[b](N)ruthless.
¹² I will make mortal man ^[c](O)scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the ^(P)gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the ^(Q)heavens tremble,
And ^(R)the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of hosts
In ^(S)the day of His burning anger.
¹⁴ And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,
Or like ^(T)sheep with none to gather them,
They will each turn to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Anyone who is found will be ^(U)thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their ^(V)little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

¹⁵ “For the ^(A)day of the Lord draws near on all the nations.
^(B)As you have done, it will be done to you.
Your ^(C)dealings will return on your own head.
¹⁶ “Because just as you ^(D)drank on ^(E)My holy mountain,
All the nations ^(F)will drink continually.
They will drink and ^[a]swallow
And become as if they had never existed.
¹⁷ “But on Mount ^(G)Zion there will be those who escape,
And it will be holy.
And the house of Jacob will ^(H)possess their possessions.
¹⁸ “Then the house of Jacob will be a ^(I)fire
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau will be as stubble.
And they will set ^[b]them on fire and consume ^[c]them,
So that there will be ^(J)no survivor of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.
¹⁹ Then those of the ^[d]Negev will ^(K)possess the mountain of Esau,
And those of the ^[e]Shephelah the ^(L)Philistine plain;
Also, ^(M)possess the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria,
And Benjamin will possess Gilead.
²⁰ And the exiles of this host of the sons of Israel,
Who are among the Canaanites as far as ^(N)Zarephath,
And the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Will possess the ^(O)cities of the Negev.
²¹ The ^(P)deliverers will ascend Mount Zion
To judge the mountain of Esau,
And the ^(Q)kingdom will be the Lord’s.