1Blow a ram’s horn in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming — indeed, it is near:
2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness. Like dawn spread over the mountains, a people great and mighty; there has never been the like of it from of old, nor will there be again after it, for years of generation upon generation.
3Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame blazes. Like the garden of Eden is the land before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness — and nothing at all escapes them.
4Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like horsemen, so they run.
5Like the rumbling of chariots on the tops of the mountains they leap, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring stubble, like a mighty people arrayed for battle.
6Before them peoples writhe in anguish; every face grows pale.
7Like warriors they run, like men of war they scale a wall. Each marches in his own path, and they do not swerve from their courses.
8They do not jostle one another; each keeps to his own track. They fall through the weapons but are not broken.
9They rush upon the city, they run along the wall, they climb into the houses; through the windows they enter like a thief.
10Before them the earth quakes, the heavens shake; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their brightness.
11And Yahweh utters his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for mighty is the one who carries out his word. For the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome — who can endure it?
12“Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “return to me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning.”
13Tear your heart and not your garments, and return to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, and he relents from disaster.
14Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him — a grain offering and a drink offering for Yahweh your God.
15Blow a ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly!
16Gather the people, consecrate the assembly, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber, and the bride from her canopy.
17Between the portico and the altar let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep and say, “Spare, O Yahweh, your people, and do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
18Then Yahweh became zealous for his land and had pity on his people.
19And Yahweh answered and said to his people: “Behold, I am sending you the grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, and you will be satisfied with it, and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20And I will drive the northern one far from you and thrust it into a parched and desolate land — its front toward the eastern sea and its rear toward the western sea. Its stench will rise, and its foul smell will go up, for it has done great things.
21Do not fear, O land! Rejoice and be glad, for Yahweh has done great things.
22Do not fear, O beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness have turned green, for the tree has borne its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have yielded their wealth.
23And you, children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in Yahweh your God, for he has given you the early rain in due measure, and he has sent down for you the rain, the early rain and the latter rain, as before.
24And the threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and fresh oil.
25And I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust ate — the young locust, the destroying locust, and the cutting locust — my great army that I sent among you.
26And you will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of Yahweh your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people will never be put to shame.
27And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and there is no other. And my people will never be put to shame.
28And it will come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29And even on the male servants and on the female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth: blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh.
32And it will come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be an escaped remnant, as Yahweh has said, and among the survivors whom Yahweh is calling.
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