Attention, elder statesmen! Listen closely,
    everyone, whoever and wherever you are!
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
    Has anything like this ever happened before—ever?
Make sure you tell your children,
    and your children tell their children,
And their children their children.
    Don’t let this message die out.

⁴ What the chewing locust left,
    the gobbling locust ate;
What the gobbling locust left,
    the munching locust ate;
What the munching locust left,
    the chomping locust ate.

^5-7 Sober up, you drunks!
    Get in touch with reality—and weep!
Your supply of booze is cut off.
    You’re on the wagon, like it or not.
My country’s being invaded
    by an army invincible, past numbering,
Teeth like those of a lion,
    fangs like those of a tiger.
It has ruined my vineyards,
    stripped my orchards,
And clear-cut the country.
    The landscape’s a moonscape.

^8-10 Weep like a young virgin dressed in black,
    mourning the loss of her fiancé.
Without grain and grapes,
    worship has been brought to a standstill
    in the Sanctuary of God.
The priests are at a loss.
    God’s ministers don’t know what to do.
The fields are sterile.
    The very ground grieves.
The wheat fields are lifeless,
    vineyards dried up, olive oil gone.

^11-12 Dirt farmers, despair!
    Grape growers, wring your hands!
Lament the loss of wheat and barley.
    All crops have failed.
Vineyards dried up,
    fig trees withered,
Pomegranates, date palms, and apple trees—
    deadwood everywhere!
And joy is dried up and withered
    in the hearts of the people.

^15-18 What a day! Doomsday!
    God’s Judgment Day has come.
The Strong God has arrived.
    This is serious business!
Food is just a memory at our tables,
    as are joy and singing from God’s Sanctuary.
The seeds in the field are dead,
    barns deserted,
Grain silos abandoned.
    Who needs them? The crops have failed!
The farm animals groan—oh, how they groan!
    The cattle mill around.
There’s nothing for them to eat.
    Not even the sheep find anything.

^19-20 God! I pray, I cry out to you!
    The fields are burning up,
The country is a dust bowl,
    forest and prairie fires rage unchecked.
Wild animals, dying of thirst,
    look to you for a drink.
Springs and streams are dried up.
    The whole country is burning up.

^4-6 The locust army seems all horses—
    galloping horses, an army of horses.
It sounds like thunder
    leaping on mountain ridges,
Or like the roar of wildfire
    through grass and brush,
Or like an invincible army shouting for blood,
    ready to fight, straining at the bit.
At the sight of this army,
    the people panic, faces white with terror.

^7-11 The invaders charge.
    They climb barricades. Nothing stops them.
Each soldier does what he’s told,
    so disciplined, so determined.
They don’t get in each other’s way.
    Each one knows his job and does it.
Undaunted and fearless,
    unswerving, unstoppable.
They storm the city,
    swarm its defenses,
Loot the houses,
    breaking down doors, smashing windows.
They arrive like an earthquake,
    sweep through like a tornado.
Sun and moon turn out their lights,
    stars black out.
God himself bellows in thunder
    as he commands his forces.
Look at the size of that army!
    And the strength of those who obey him!
God’s Judgment Day—great and terrible.
    Who can possibly survive this?

^13-14 Change your life, not just your clothes.
    Come back to God, your God.
And here’s why: God is kind and merciful.
    He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot,
This most patient God, extravagant in love,
    always ready to cancel catastrophe.
Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now,
    maybe he’ll turn around and show pity.
Maybe, when all’s said and done,
    there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!

^15-17 Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion!
    Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day.
Call a public meeting.
    Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation.
Make sure the elders come,
    but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies,
Even men and women on their honeymoon—
    interrupt them and get them there.
Between Sanctuary entrance and altar,
    let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance.
Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people!
    Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt.
Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them
    and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’”

^18-20 At that, God went into action to get his land back.
    He took pity on his people.
God answered and spoke to his people,
    “Look, listen—I’m sending a gift:
Grain and wine and olive oil.
    The fast is over—eat your fill!
I won’t expose you any longer
    to contempt among the pagans.
I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north
    and dump them in a wasteland.
Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea,
    the other half in the Mediterranean.
There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven.
    The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!”

^25-27 “I’ll make up for the years of the locust,
    the great locust devastation—
Locusts savage, locusts deadly,
    fierce locusts, locusts of doom,
That great locust invasion
    I sent your way.
You’ll eat your fill of good food.
    You’ll be full of praises to your God,
The God who has set you back on your heels in wonder.
    Never again will my people be despised.
You’ll know without question
    that I’m in the thick of life with Israel,
That I’m your God, yes, your God,
    the one and only real God.
Never again will my people be despised.

“I will pour out my Spirit
    on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
    also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
    your young men will see visions.
I’ll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
    men and women both.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
    and signs on the earth below:
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
    the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Judgment Day of God,
    the Day tremendous and awesome.
Whoever calls, ‘Help, God!’
    gets help.
On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
    there will be a great rescue—just as God said.
Included in the survivors
    are those that God calls.”

^4-8 “As for you, Tyre and Sidon and Philistia,
    why should I bother with you?
Are you trying to get back at me
    for something I did to you?
If you are, forget it.
    I’ll see to it that it boomerangs on you.
You robbed me, cleaned me out of silver and gold,
    carted off everything valuable to furnish your own temples.
You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem
    into slavery to the Greeks in faraway places.
But I’m going to reverse your crime.
    I’m going to free those slaves.
I’ll have done to you what you did to them:
    I’ll sell your children as slaves to your neighbors,
And they’ll sell them to the far-off Sabeans.”
    God’s Verdict.

^9-11 Announce this to the godless nations:
    Prepare for battle!
Soldiers at attention!
    Present arms! Advance!
Turn your shovels into swords,
    turn your hoes into spears.
Let the weak one throw out his chest
    and say, “I’m tough, I’m a fighter.”
Hurry up, pagans! Wherever you are, get a move on!
    Get your act together.
Prepare to be
    shattered by God!

¹² Let the pagan nations set out
    for Judgment Valley.
There I’ll take my place at the bench
    and judge all the surrounding nations.

¹³ “Swing the sickle—
    the harvest is ready.
Stomp on the grapes—
    the winepress is full.
The wine vats are full,
    overflowing with vintage evil.

¹⁴ “Mass confusion, mob uproar—
    in Decision Valley!
God’s Judgment Day has arrived
    in Decision Valley.

^15-17 “The sky turns black,
    sun and moon go dark, stars burn out.
God roars from Zion, shouts from Jerusalem.
    Earth and sky quake in terror.
But God is a safe hiding place,
    a granite safe house for the children of Israel.
Then you’ll know for sure
    that I’m your God,
Living in Zion,
    my sacred mountain.
Jerusalem will be a sacred city,
    posted: ‘no trespassing.’