Joel 2

Blow a horn in Zion, Sound an alarm on My holy mount! Let all dwellers on earth tremble, For the day of GOD has come! It is close—

A day of darkness and gloom, A day of densest cloud Spread like soot over the hills. A vast, enormous horde— Nothing like it has ever happened, And it shall never happen again Through the years and ages.

Their vanguard is a consuming fire, Their rear guard a devouring flame. Before them the land was like the Garden of Eden, Behind them, a desolate waste: Nothing has escaped them.

They have the appearance of horses, They gallop just like steeds.

With a clatter as of chariots They bound on the hilltops, With a noise like a blazing fire Consuming straw; Like an enormous horde Arrayed for battle.

Peoples tremble before them, All faces turn ashen.

They rush like warriors, They scale a wall like fighters. And each keeps to its own track. Their paths never cross;

No one jostles another, Each keeps to its own course. And should they fall through a loophole, They do not get hurt.

They rush up the wall, They dash about in the city; They climb into the houses, They enter like thieves By way of the windows.

Before them earth trembles, Heaven shakes, Sun and moon are darkened, And stars withdraw their brightness.

And GOD roars aloud At the head of the divine army; For vast indeed is this host, Numberless are those that do God’s bidding. For great is the day of GOD, Most terrible—who can endure it?

“Yet even now”—says GOD— “Turn back to Me with all your hearts, And with fasting, weeping, and lamenting.”

Rend your hearts Rather than your garments, And turn back to the ETERNAL your God. For [God] is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in kindness, And renouncing punishment.

Who knows but [God] may turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind For grain offering and drink offering To the ETERNAL your God?

Blow a horn in Zion, Solemnize a fast, Proclaim an assembly!

Gather the people, Bid the congregation purify themselves. Bring together the old, Gather the babes And the sucklings at the breast; Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber, The bride from her canopied couch.

Between the portico and the altar, Let the priests, GOD’s ministers, weep And say: “Oh, spare Your people, ETERNAL One! Let not Your possession become a mockery, To be taunted by nations! Let not the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”

Then GOD was roused In behalf of this land And had compassion Upon this people.

In response to this covenanted people GOD declared: “I will grant you the new grain, The new wine, and the new oil, And you shall have them in abundance. Nevermore will I let you be A mockery among the nations.

I will drive the northerner far from you, I will thrust it into a parched and desolate land— Its van to the Eastern Sea And its rear to the Western Sea; And the stench of it shall go up, And the foul smell rise.” For [GOD] shall work great deeds.

Fear not, O soil, rejoice and be glad; For GOD has wrought great deeds.

Fear not, O beasts of the field, For the pastures in the wilderness Are clothed with grass. The trees have borne their fruit; Fig tree and vine Have yielded their strength.

O children of Zion, be glad, Rejoice in the ETERNAL your God. For you have been given the early rain out of kindness, Now the rain is made to fall [as] formerly— The early rain and the late—

And threshing floors shall be piled with grain, And vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

“I will repay you for the years Consumed by swarms and hoppers, By grubs and locusts, The great army I let loose against you.

And you shall eat your fill And praise the name of the ETERNAL your God Who dealt so wondrously with you— My people shall be shamed no more.

And you shall know That I am in the midst of Israel: That I the ETERNAL One am your God And there is no other. And My people shall be shamed no more.”