Study Desk

For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

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

The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails.

Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined.

Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander about because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dazed.

To you, O Lord , I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field.

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

As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.

rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord , your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord , your God?

Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.

Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!

Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.

I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down.

What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.