Study Desk

Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Ah! For the day! For the day of Yahweh is near. It will come like destruction from Shaddai.

How the beasts groan; the herds of cattle wander around because there is no pasture for them; the flocks of sheep are in distress.

Also, the beasts of the field long for you, because the courses of water are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the desert.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming —it is indeed near.

A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness, like the dawn spreads on the mountains, a great and strong army! There has been nothing like it from old, and after it nothing will be again for generations to come.

like the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap about; like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble; like a strong army arranged in rows for battle.

And Yahweh utters his voice before his army, because his encampment is very large; strong is the one who carries out his decree, for great is the day of Yahweh and exceedingly fearful. Who can endure it?

Who knows whether he will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, an offering and a libation, for Yahweh your God?

Then Yahweh became jealous for his land and took pity on his people.

Be glad, O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in Yahweh your God, because he has given for you the autumn rains for your righteousness, and he has poured down for you rainwater, the autumn and spring rains, as before.

For look! In those days, and in that time, when I will return the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

For my people they cast lots, and they traded the male child for the prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine and they drank it.

For you have taken my silver and my gold, and my beautiful treasures you have carried into your temples.

I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans and to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken.

Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty warriors; let them approach and come up; let all the men of war approach.

Let the nations be roused and let them come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations from all around.

Send forth the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Go tread, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow, because their evil is great!

Commotion, commotion in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision!

And Yahweh roars from Zion; from Jerusalem he utters his voice, and the heavens and the earth shake. But Yahweh is a refuge for his people, and a protection for the children of Israel.