Pass it on to your children, and from your children to their children, and from their children to the following generation.

Indeed, a nation has invaded my land it is strong and its population is too large to count with teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.

That nation laid waste my vines, and stripped bare my fig tree, discarding it. It stripped off its bark.

"Grieve like a virgin, who, dressed in her mourner's clothes, cries out in memory of the man she was going to marry.

"The fields lie in ruins and the ground is dried up. Indeed, the grain is ruined, the new wine has evaporated, and the olive oil has run out.

Be dismayed, you farmers! Cry aloud, you vintners, for the wheat and barley, because the harvest in your fields has been lost.

"Put on your mourning clothes, you priests; and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar! Come! Stay the night in mourner's clothes, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God.

Set apart time for a fast! Call a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and everyone living in the land to the Temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD!"

Oh, no! For the Day of the LORD approaches, and like destruction from the Almighty, it will come!

To you, LORD, I cry out, because fire has devoured the open pastures, and has set all the cultivated trees ablaze.

The livestock also cries out to you, because their water sources have evaporated and because fire has consumed the open pastures.

"Sound the ram's horn in Zion! Sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Tremble, all of you inhabitants of the land, because the Day of the LORD is coming. Oh, how near it is!

A day of doom and gloom, a day of clouds and shadows like the dawn spreads out to cover the mountains a people strong and robust. Never has there been anything like it, neither will anything follow to compare with it, even through the lifetime of generation upon generation."

The LORD will shout in the presence of his forces, because his encampment is very great; for powerful is he who carries out his message. Truly the Day of the LORD is great, and very terrifying. Who will be able to survive it?"

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "Turn back to me with your whole heart, with fasting, tears, and mourning.

You will have plenty to eat, and will be fully satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has performed wonders specifically for you. And my people will never be ashamed.

"Then it will come about at a later time that I will pour out my Spirit on every person. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your elderly people will dream dreams, and your young people will see visions.

Also at that time I will pour out my Spirit upon men and women servants.

"Look, now! In those very days and at that time, when I restore prosperity to Judah and Jerusalem,

I will gather all nations, bringing them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will set out my case against them there, on behalf of my people, my heritage Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, apportioning my land among themselves.

"Furthermore, what have you to do with me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the sea coasts of Philistia? Are you taking revenge on me? If you are taking revenge on me, I'll send it back on you swiftly and promptly,

It will come about at that time that the mountains will drip with newly pressed wine, the hills will flow with milk, and the streams of Judah will flow abundantly. A fountain will spring from the Temple of the LORD, to water the Valley of the Acacias.

I will acquit their bloodguilt that has not yet been acquitted. For the LORD lives in Zion!"