Joel 2

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; make a proclamation on my holy mountain. Let everyone who lives in the land be thrown into confusion, because the day of the Lord is here; it is near—

2 a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and mist. Like dawn, a vast and powerful people will spread over the mountains. Nothing like them has existed from ancient times, and nothing like them will come again for generations upon generations.

3 A consuming fire goes before them, and a burning flame follows them. Before them the land is like a garden of delight; behind them it is a plain of destruction. No one will escape them.

4 Their appearance is like horses, and they pursue like horsemen.

5 They leap across the mountain peaks with a noise like chariots, like the sound of flame consuming stubble, like a vast and powerful people arrayed for war.

6 Peoples will be crushed before them; every face will be blackened like a scorched pot.

7 They run like fighters and climb walls like warriors. Each one moves along his own road, and they do not turn aside from their paths.

8 No one pulls away from his brother. They march weighed down with their weapons. They fall on their arrows, yet they are not brought to an end.

9 They seize the city, run along the walls, climb onto the houses, and enter through the windows like thieves.

10 The earth is shaken before them, and the sky trembles. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their light.

11 The Lord gives his voice before his army, because his camp is very great and what his words accomplish is powerful. The day of the Lord is great, exceedingly great and renowned. Who will be able to withstand it?

12 Now the Lord your God says,

“Turn to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”

13 Tear open your hearts, not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, because he is merciful and full of pity, patient and rich in mercy, and he changes his mind about harm.

14 Who knows whether he will turn, change his mind, and leave a blessing behind him— a sacrifice and drink offering for the Lord our God?

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Set apart a fast; proclaim a solemn service.

16 Gather the people and make the assembly holy. Choose the elders; gather nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her bridal chamber.

17 At the base of the altar, let the priests who serve the Lord weep and say,

“Spare your people, Lord. Do not give your inheritance over to disgrace so that nations rule over them. Why should they say among the nations, ‘Where is their God?’”

18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land and spared his people.

19 The Lord answered his people:

“Look, I am sending you grain, wine, and olive oil. You will have your fill of them, and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations.

20 I will drive the one from the north away from you and force him into a dry land. I will destroy his front in the first sea and his rear in the last sea. His rottenness and stench will rise, because he made his deeds great.”

21 Take courage, land; rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has done great things.

22 Take courage, cattle of the field, because the wilderness plains have sprouted. The trees have borne their fruit; the fig tree and vine have yielded their strength.

23 Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, because he has given you food for righteousness. He will send you the early rain and the later rain, as he did before.

24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil.

25 “I will repay you for the years that the locust, crawling locust, blight, and caterpillar consumed— my great army that I sent against you.

26 You will eat abundantly and have your fill. You will praise the name of the Lord your God for the wonders he has done among you, and my people will never be put to shame.

27 You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no one besides me. None of my people will ever be put to shame again.

28 After this, I will pour out from my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your elders will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

29 In those days I will pour out from my Spirit even on male and female slaves.

30 I will give wonders in heaven and on earth: blood, fire, and vapor of smoke.

31 The sun will be changed into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and renowned day of the Lord comes.

32 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be one who escapes, as the Lord has said, and bearers of good news whom the Lord has called.”