Joel 2

2 ¹ Blow a shofar in Zion sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all who live in the land tremble for the day of our Father is coming—it is near:

² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army comes—nothing like it has ever been before and nothing like it will ever come again.

³ Before them fire devours and behind them a flame blazes. The land before them is like the garden of Eden but behind them a desolate wilderness—and nothing escapes them. ⁴ They look like horses like war horses they charge. ⁵ Like the rumbling of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like the crackling of flame consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

⁶ Before them peoples writhe in anguish every face grows pale. ⁷ Like warriors they charge like soldiers they scale the wall. Each marches in line, never swerving from its course. ⁸ They do not jostle one another each keeps to its own path. They burst through the weapons and are not halted. ⁹ They rush upon the city they run along the wall. They climb into the houses through the windows they enter like a thief. ¹⁰ Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars no longer shine.

¹¹ Our Father raises his voice at the head of his army his camp is very great and mighty are those who carry out his word. The day of our Father is great and utterly terrifying—who can endure it?

Return to Your Father

¹² "Yet even now," declares our Father, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning."

¹³ Tear your hearts, not your garments. Return to your Father for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and he relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—a grain offering and a drink offering for your Father.

¹⁵ Blow a shofar in Zion consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly. ¹⁶ Gather the people consecrate the assembly bring together the elders gather the children, even the infants nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride from her chamber. ¹⁷ Let the priests who minister before our Father weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, "Spare your people, our Father and do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

Our Father Restores His People

¹⁸ Then our Father became jealous for his land and took pity on his people.

¹⁹ Our Father answered and said to his people: "Look, I am sending you grain, new wine and oil and you will be satisfied with them. Never again will I make you an object of scorn among the nations."

²⁰ I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and desolate land—its front ranks into the eastern sea and its rear into the western sea. Its stench will rise its foul smell will go up for it has done monstrous things.

²¹ Don't be afraid, land rejoice and be glad for our Father has done great things! ²² Do not be afraid, you animals of the field for the pastures of the wilderness are turning green the tree bears its fruit the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. ²³ Be glad, children of Zion and rejoice in your Father for he has given you the autumn rain for your vindication he sends down for you abundant showers, the autumn and the spring rains, as before. ²⁴ The threshing floors will be full of grain the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust and the cutting locust—my great army that I sent among you. ²⁶ You will eat your fill and be satisfied and you will praise the name of your Father, who has dealt wondrously with you and never again will my people be put to shame. ²⁷ Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am your Father and there is no other and never again will my people be put to shame.

The Father Pours Out His Spirit

²⁸ And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹ Even on the male servants and the female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth—blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of our Father comes. ³² And this will happen: everyone who calls on the name of our Lord Jesus will be saved for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as our Father has said, among the survivors whom our Father calls.