Hear this, O elders,
Listen closely, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing as this occurred in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?

Wail, as a virgin girdeth with sackcloth, For the husband of her youth.

The vine has dried up; the fig tree languishes -- the pomegranate, date, and apple as well. In fact, all the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, the joy of the people has dried up!

Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Blow out the trumpet in Zion, and cry upon my holy hill: that all such as dwell in the land, may tremble at it. For the day of the LORD cometh, and is hard at hand:

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

The folk shall be afraid of him, all faces shall be as black as a pot.

As mighty ones they run, As men of war they go up a wall, And each in his own ways they do go, And they embarrass not their paths.

In the city they run to and fro, On the wall they run, Into houses they go up by the windows, They go in as a thief.

The voice of the Lord thunders as he leads his army. Indeed, his warriors are innumerable; Surely his command is carried out! Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome and very terrifying -- who can survive it?

As they serve between the porch and the altar, let the priests and ministers of the LORD weep and pray: "Spare your people, LORD, and do not make your heritage a disgrace so that nations ridicule them. Why should they say among the people, "Where is their God?"'"

And Yahweh answered and said to his people, "Look at me, [I am] sending to you grain, new wine, and olive oil, and you will be satisfied by it. I will not give you [over] any more as a disgrace among the nations.

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.

So rejoice, O children of Zion,
And delight in the Lord, your God;
For He has given you the early [autumn] rain in vindication
And He has poured down the rain for you,
The early [autumn] rain and the late [spring] rain, as before.

"Then I will restore to you the years that the locust swarm devoured, as did the young locust, the other locusts, and the ravaging locust, that great army of mine that I sent among you.

As a result, you will know that I am in the midst of Israel; that I myself am the LORD your God and there is none other! And my people will never be ashamed."

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Forasmuch as ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly precious things,

Beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears, - as for the weak, let him say, mighty, I am.

Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about.

And I shall avenge their blood which I have not avenged,
For the Lord dwells in Zion.