Beginning

² Listen to this, you elders!
    Pay attention, all who dwell in the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your lifetime,
    or in the lifetime of your ancestors?
³ Report it to your children.
    Have your children report it to their children,
    and their children to the next generation.
⁴ What the cutter left,
    the swarming locust has devoured;
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopper has devoured;
What the hopper left,
    the consuming locust^[a] has devoured.
⁵ Wake up, you drunkards,^[b] and weep;
    wail, all you wine drinkers,
Over the new wine,
    taken away from your mouths.
⁶ For a nation^[c] invaded my land,
    powerful and past counting,
With teeth like a lion’s,
    fangs like those of a lioness.
⁷ It has stripped bare my vines,
    splintered my fig tree,
Shearing off its bark and throwing it away,
    until its branches turn white.
⁸ Wail like a young woman^[d] dressed in sackcloth
    for the husband of her youth.
⁹ Grain offering and libation are cut off
    from the house of the Lord;
In mourning are the priests,
    the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The field is devastated;
    the farmland mourns,^[e]
Because the grain is devastated,
    the wine has dried up,
    the oil has failed.
¹¹ Be appalled, you farmers!
    wail, you vinedressers,
Over the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest in the field is ruined.
¹² The vine has dried up,
    the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate, even the date palm and the apple—
    every tree in the field has dried up.
Joy itself has dried up
    among the people.

^13 [f]Gird yourselves and lament, you priests!
    wail, ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
    ministers of my God!
For the grain offering and the libation
    are withheld from the house of your God.^(A)
14 Proclaim a holy fast!
    Call an assembly!
Gather the elders,
    all who dwell in the land,
To the house of the Lord, your God,
    and cry out to the Lord!^(B)
15 O! The day!^[g]
    For near is the day of the Lord,
    like destruction from the Almighty it is coming!^(C)
16 Before our very eyes^[h]
    has not food been cut off?
And from the house of our God,
    joy and gladness?
¹⁷ The seed lies shriveled beneath clods of dirt;^[i]
    the storehouses are emptied.
The granaries are broken down,
    for the grain is dried up.
^18 [j]How the animals groan!
    The herds of cattle are bewildered!
Because they have no pasture,
    even the flocks of sheep are starving.
¹⁹ To you, Lord, I cry!
    for fire has devoured the wilderness pastures,
    flame has scorched all the trees in the field.
²⁰ Even the animals in the wild
    cry out to you;
For the streams of water have run dry,
    and fire has devoured the wilderness pastures.^(D)

^1 [k]Blow the horn in Zion,
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming!^(E)
Yes, it approaches,
²     a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of thick clouds!
Like dawn^[l] spreading over the mountains,
    a vast and mighty army!
Nothing like it has ever happened in ages past,
    nor will the future hold anything like it,
    even to the most distant generations.^(F)
3 Before it,^[m] fire devours,
    behind it flame scorches.
The land before it is like the garden of Eden,
    and behind it, a desolate wilderness;
    from it nothing escapes.^(G)
4 Their appearance is that of horses;
    like war horses they run.
⁵ Like the rumble of chariots
    they hurtle across mountaintops;
Like the crackling of fiery flames
    devouring stubble;
Like a massive army
    in battle formation.^(H)
6 Before them peoples tremble,
    every face turns pale.^(I)
7 Like warriors they run,
    like soldiers they scale walls,
Each advancing in line,
    without swerving from the course.
⁸ No one crowds the other;
    each advances in its own track;
They plunge through the weapons;
    they are not checked.
⁹ They charge the city,
    they run upon the wall,
    they climb into the houses;
Through the windows
    they enter like thieves.

¹² Yet even now—oracle of the Lord—
    return to me with your whole heart,
    with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
¹³ Rend your hearts, not your garments,
    and return to the Lord, your God,
For he is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,
    and relenting in punishment.^(L)
14 Perhaps he will again relent
    and leave behind a blessing,^[n]
Grain offering and libation
    for the Lord, your God.^(M)
15 Blow the horn in Zion!
    Proclaim a fast,
    call an assembly!^(N)
16 Gather the people,
    sanctify the congregation;
Assemble the elderly;
    gather the children,
    even infants nursing at the breast;
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride^[o] her bridal tent.
¹⁷ Between the porch and the altar^[p]
    let the priests weep,
    let the ministers of the Lord weep and say:
“Spare your people, Lord!
    do not let your heritage become a disgrace,
    a byword among the nations!
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”^(O)

^1 [t]It shall come to pass
    I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
² Even upon your male and female servants,
    in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
³ I will set signs in the heavens and on the earth,
    blood, fire, and columns of smoke;
⁴ The sun will darken,
    the moon turn blood-red,
Before the day of the Lord arrives,
    that great and terrible day.^(U)
5 Then everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord
    will escape harm.
For on Mount Zion there will be a remnant,
    as the Lord has said,
And in Jerusalem survivors
    whom the Lord will summon.^(V)