For a nation has invaded our land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. Their teeth are like those of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness.

Be distressed, farmers; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the field has perished.

How awful that day will be! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.

The grains of seed have shriveled beneath their shovels. Storehouses have been decimated and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

To you, O Lord, I call out for help, for fire has burned up the grassy pastures, flames have razed all the trees in the fields.

Even the wild animals cry out to you; for the river beds have dried up; fire has destroyed the grassy pastures.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the Lord is about to come. Indeed, it is near!

It will be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds, like blackness spread over the mountains. It is a huge and powerful army -- there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!

Like fire they devour everything in their path; a flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness -- for nothing escapes them!

They sound like chariots rumbling over mountain tops, like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble, like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle.

People writhe in fear when they see them. All of their faces turn pale with fright.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love -- often relenting from calamitous punishment.

Who knows? Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, and leave blessing in his wake -- a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!

Then the Lord became zealous for his land; he had compassion on his people.

I will remove the one from the north far from you. I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. His stench will rise up as a foul smell." Indeed, the Lord has accomplished great things.

Do not fear, my land! Rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has accomplished great things!

Do not fear, wild animals! For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass. Indeed, the trees bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest.

Citizens of Zion, rejoice! Be glad because of what the Lord your God has done! For he has given to you the early rains as vindication. He has sent to you the rains -- both the early and the late rains as formerly.

I will make up for the years that the 'arbeh-locust consumed your crops -- the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust -- my great army that I sent against you.

I will produce portents both in the sky and on the earth -- blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised; the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.

For look! In those days and at that time I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem.

and they cast lots for my people. They traded a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.

Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!

For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.

You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country.

Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done!

I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away. Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack!

Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!

Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!

The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out. The heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.