Joel 2 Cross References - MSB

¹ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near— ² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come. ³ Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them. ⁴ Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds. ⁵ With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle. ⁶ Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale. ⁷ They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course. ⁸ They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks. ⁹ They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves. ¹⁰ Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. ¹¹ The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it? ¹² “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” ¹³ So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God. ¹⁵ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly. ¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. ¹⁷ Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” ¹⁸ Then the LORD became jealous for His land, and He spared His people. ¹⁹ And the LORD answered His people: “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and by them you will be satisfied. I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. ²⁰ The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things. ²¹ Do not be afraid, O land; rejoice and be glad, for the LORD has done great things. ²² Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best. ²³ Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. ²⁴ The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. ²⁵ I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you. ²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame. ²⁷ Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame. ²⁸ And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹ Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 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 coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. ³² And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has promised, among the remnant called by the LORD.

³ When both are sounded, the whole congregation is to assemble before you at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁵ When you sound short blasts, the camps that lie on the east side are to set out. ⁶ When you sound the short blasts a second time, the camps that lie on the south side are to set out. The blasts are to signal them to set out. ⁷ To convene the assembly, you are to sound long blasts, not short ones. ⁸ The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to sound the trumpets. This shall be a permanent statute for you and the generations to come. ⁹ When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God and saved from your enemies.

²⁸ So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and with cymbals and the music of harps and lyres.

³ When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat there in horror until the evening offering.

¹ A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A song. He has founded His city on the holy mountains.

¹²⁰ My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

¹² For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—

² Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

⁵ You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”

⁵ Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’

²² Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

⁷ No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.

¹⁰ When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our guilt? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! ⁷ Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy.

¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.

¹² The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

²³ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled.

³ and he sees the sword coming against that land and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people.

⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’

²⁶ I hereby decree that in every part of my kingdom, men are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For He is the living God, and He endures forever; His kingdom will never be destroyed, and His dominion will never end.

¹⁶ O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.

²⁰ While I was speaking, praying, confessing my sin and that of my people Israel, and presenting my petition before the LORD my God concerning His holy mountain—

⁸ Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!

¹ Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁵ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly.

¹⁷ Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

⁶ If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?

² “Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

¹⁵ For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head.

¹⁴ The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter.

¹⁶ a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.

¹¹ On that day you will not be put to shame for any of the deeds by which you have transgressed against Me. For then I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain.

³ This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹² Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

⁸ You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

⁶ They will fill your houses and the houses of all your officials and every Egyptian—something neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen since the day they came into this land.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.

¹⁴ The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be.

²¹ And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

⁷ Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.

⁶ He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”

² Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

³⁰ In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

²² Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

¹² You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹ “At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations until that time. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.

² Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? ³ Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

⁵ With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.

¹⁰ Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness. ¹¹ The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?

²⁵ I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵ The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.

¹³ For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name.”

¹⁸ Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light. ¹⁹ It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake. ²⁰ Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

¹⁴ The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter. ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,

¹⁹ For those will be days of tribulation unmatched from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to blackness, darkness, and storm;

¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

⁸ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.

¹⁰ And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

⁵ They will cover the face of the land so that no one can see it. They will devour whatever is left after the hail and eat every tree that grows in your fields.

¹⁵ They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

³ Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came—young locusts without number. ³⁵ They devoured every plant in their land and consumed the produce of their soil.

³ For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

¹⁷ They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare with its branches, nor the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with its beauty. ⁹ I made it beautiful with its many branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God.’

⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness. ⁷ It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

⁴ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

¹⁴ But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

⁷ And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men.

²⁴ Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰ And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.

³ The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished. ⁴ The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

² The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! ³ Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over their dead—

¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

⁹ They also had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.

⁸³ Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.

⁸ Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

²¹ For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.

⁶ Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?

⁸ But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

¹⁰ She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!

²³ Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, were not divided in death. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

¹⁸ The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was fleet of foot like a wild gazelle, ¹⁹ and he chased Abner, not turning to the right or to the left in his pursuit.

⁸ On that day he said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must use the water shaft to reach the lame and blind who are despised by David.” That is why it is said, “The blind and the lame will never enter the palace.”

⁵ Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course,

²⁷ the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in formation;

²⁶ He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come! ²⁷ None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken. ²⁸ Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind. ²⁹ Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away from deliverance.

¹⁰ Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

⁹ They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves.

¹⁰ He stationed all the troops, with their weapons in hand, surrounding the king by the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

⁵ Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.

¹⁷ who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.

²³ So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the guards with me changed out of our clothes; each carried his weapon, even to go for water.

¹⁸ to preserve his soul from the Pit and his life from perishing by the sword.

¹² But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹³ Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,

²¹ For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.

¹ “Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.

⁷ Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.

⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

⁴ All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.

²³ I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

⁷ When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. ⁸ All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you, and I will bring darkness upon your land,’ declares the Lord GOD.

² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

¹⁵ The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. ¹⁶ The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—

⁵ The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

⁵¹ At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.

²⁴ But in those days, after that tribulation: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; ²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

²⁵ There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves. ²⁶ Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.

¹² And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red,

¹² Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.

²³ Once more Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Ah, who can live unless God has ordained it?

¹⁴ The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. ¹⁵ He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

⁶ Nations rage, kingdoms crumble; the earth melts when He lifts His voice.

¹⁸ On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

⁴ Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

¹³ The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies:

³⁰ So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.

⁷ How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

¹⁴ Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act.

¹⁶ The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

² He said: “The LORD roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”

¹⁸ Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

²⁰ Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

⁶ Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

² But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

¹⁷ For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

⁸ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

²⁹ But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice.

²⁶ Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, where they sat weeping before the LORD. That day they fasted until evening and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.

³ Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

⁶ When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.

⁴⁷ and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸ and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name, ⁴⁹ then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause.

³⁸ and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name, ³⁹ then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who sinned against You.

¹³ If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, ¹⁴ and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

³ Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah. ⁴ So the people of Judah gathered to seek the LORD, and indeed, they came from all the cities of Judah to seek Him.

¹ On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth, with dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

⁶ Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. ⁷ Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹ “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,

¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

¹ Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

⁶ But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.

¹ Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

⁵ And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶ When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. ⁸ Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

³ So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’ ⁴ Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD.

³ by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

¹⁰ Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the remaining clans and their wives.

²⁰ First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone throughout the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

⁶ Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

¹¹ Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same.

²⁷ When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.

⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and asked, “Am I God, killing and giving life, that this man expects me to cure a leper? Surely you can see that he is seeking a quarrel with me!”

³⁰ When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes

¹⁹ because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.

¹⁷ They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

²⁰ Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,

¹⁸ The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

⁵ For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

¹⁵ But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

⁷ They will extol the fame of Your abundant goodness and sing joyfully of Your righteousness. ⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion. ⁹ The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made.

¹⁵ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁵ Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?

⁷ At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed. ⁸ But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

⁴ “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

² And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?” ³ So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said. ⁴ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. ⁵ Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?” ⁶ So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen either,” said the Lord GOD.

² So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

¹⁸ Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

¹⁶ When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. ¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

⁴ Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

²⁰ The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

⁸ For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.

¹⁹ So then, my beloved brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, ²⁰ for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

¹² Now therefore give me this hill country that the LORD promised me on that day, for you yourself heard then that the Anakim were there, with great and fortified cities. Perhaps with the LORD’s help I will drive them out, as the LORD has spoken.”

⁵ Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.

²² David answered, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let him live.’

⁴ Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

⁸ This is what the LORD says: “As the new wine is found in a cluster of grapes, and men say, ‘Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing,’ so I will act on behalf of My servants; I will not destroy them all.

³ Perhaps they will listen and turn—each from his evil way of life—so that I may relent of the disaster I am planning to bring upon them because of the evil of their deeds.

⁹ Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁵ Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

⁶ The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”

⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.

¹⁹ Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

⁵ So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you beforehand and make arrangements for the bountiful gift that was announced. This way, your gift will be prepared generously and not begrudgingly. ⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each one should give what he decides in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion, so that through us your giving will produce thanksgiving to God.

²⁵ He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

⁹ In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.

¹² They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth a seat of honor among the people.

²⁰ And Jehu commanded, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they announced it.

⁹ Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.

¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

¹ Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near—

¹⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

¹⁵ “Be prepared for the third day,” he said to the people. “Do not draw near to a woman.”

²² Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them.”

¹⁰ All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—

¹³ Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

⁵ “In peace,” he replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

¹³ Meanwhile all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, were standing before the LORD.

⁵ “Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity.

²³ Then they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴ And the priests slaughtered the goats and put their blood on the altar for a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.

¹⁷ Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the LORD.

¹⁹ who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

⁶ Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your fellow countrymen to carry out the word of the LORD given by Moses.”

⁵ And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

¹⁵ Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

⁵ Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to fasting and to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”

⁹ “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

¹⁴ And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁶ And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well. ²⁰ The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron. ²¹ And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain. ²² You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him. ²⁴ You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you. ²⁵ So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ ²⁹ But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

³⁷ You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

²⁷ if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’”

³ The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.

⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

¹² At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD he had built in front of the portico.

³⁶ So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves!

³ My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”

¹⁰ Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

¹⁰ You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us. ¹¹ You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations. ¹² You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale. ¹³ You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us. ¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹⁰ How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name. ¹⁹ Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever. ²⁰ Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. ²¹ Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame; may the poor and needy praise Your name. ²² Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long. ²³ Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries, the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.

⁴ We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

¹⁰ Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.

⁴¹ All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.

⁵¹ how Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, and have mocked every step of Your anointed one!

² Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

²⁰ And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

¹⁷ Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage. ¹⁸ For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary. ¹⁹ We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.

⁹ Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people! ¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation. ¹¹ Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins. ¹² After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

¹⁶ So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

⁹ But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

⁴ therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you. ⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder. ⁶ Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and tell the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I have spoken in My burning zeal because you have endured the reproach of the nations. ⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I have sworn with an uplifted hand that surely the nations around you will endure reproach of their own.

¹⁸ Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion. ¹⁹ O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.”

² Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

² And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

⁵ Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

⁹ “But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

¹⁶ They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.

³⁶ For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

⁴³ Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people.

¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—

¹⁰ Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Although I struck you in anger, yet in favor I will show you mercy.

⁹ In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.

²⁰ Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the LORD.

²² Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.

⁸ How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred! ⁹ I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man—the Holy One among you—and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁴ Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,

² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor.”

²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

¹¹ See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. He is full of compassion and mercy.

⁸ The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled. ⁹ For those who harvest grain will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.”

²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. ²³ They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them. ²⁴ Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.

²⁹ And I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.

¹⁵ I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.”

²⁹ And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁵ There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

²⁴ The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow. ¹⁴ I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

¹⁶ from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty. ¹⁷ I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD. ¹⁸ Consider carefully from this day forward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider carefully: ¹⁹ Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of Hosts.

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

¹⁹ And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.

²⁴ Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

¹³ “But how could your servant, a mere dog, do such a monstrous thing?” said Hazael. And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

³ Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, “Disaster from the north will be poured out on all who live in the land. ¹⁵ For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the LORD. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.

¹² For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day I display My glory, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁴ And men will be employed to continually pass through the land to cleanse it by burying the invaders who remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search. ¹⁵ As they pass through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will set up a pillar next to it, until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. ¹⁶ (Even the city will be named Hamonah.) And so they will cleanse the land.

⁷ When I arrived, I saw a great number of trees along both banks of the river. ⁸ And he said to me, “This water flows out to the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh.

¹⁸ On the east side the border will run between Hauran and Damascus, along the Jordan between Gilead and the land of Israel, to the Eastern Sea and as far as Tamar. This will be the eastern boundary.

⁴ What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. ⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. ⁶ For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come. ³ Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland—surely nothing will escape them. ⁴ Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds. ⁵ With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle. ⁶ Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale. ⁷ They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course. ⁸ They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks. ⁹ They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves.

¹⁰ “I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

⁸ And on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the Eastern Sea and the other half toward the Western Sea, in summer and winter alike.

¹ After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

³² Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

¹⁶ Now, therefore, stand and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes.

²⁴ Above all, fear the LORD and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.

¹² The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills are robed with joy. ¹³ The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are decked with grain. They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.

¹⁹ Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You?

¹¹ Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it. ¹² Let the fields exult, and all that is in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy

⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy

¹ A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers. ² Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” ³ The LORD has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

¹ The wilderness and the land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

¹⁰ Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.

²³ Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.

⁴ Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

¹² You will indeed go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

⁹ Instead, they will serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. ¹⁰ As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, declares the LORD, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.

³ Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

²¹ “On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

²⁰ The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things.

¹⁶ On that day they will say to Jerusalem: “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. ¹⁷ The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

¹⁵ “so now I have resolved to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid.

¹² When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

⁴ I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

⁶ Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.

¹² The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills are robed with joy.

⁶ The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

¹¹ They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. ¹² The birds of the air nest beside the springs; they sing among the branches. ¹³ He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works. ¹⁴ He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:

²⁷ All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season. ²⁸ When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things. ²⁹ When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.

³⁵ He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs. ³⁶ He causes the hungry to settle there, that they may establish a city in which to dwell. ³⁷ They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield a fruitful harvest. ³⁸ He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their herds diminish.

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season. ¹⁶ You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

⁸ who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills. ⁹ He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call.

²³ Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. ²⁴ The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

²⁶ I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season—showers of blessing. ²⁷ The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them from the hands that enslaved them.

⁸ But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and bear fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon come home.

³⁰ I will also make the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer bear reproach among the nations on account of famine.

³⁵ Then they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were once ruined, desolate, and destroyed are now fortified and inhabited.’

⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶ His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. ⁷ They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁴ I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

¹¹ So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

¹⁶ from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.

¹² “For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance.

⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

⁴ I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

¹⁴ then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

¹² The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.

² Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.

²³ Yet if there is a messenger on his side, one mediator in a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.

¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

⁶ May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth. ⁷ May the righteous flourish in his days and prosperity abound, until the moon is no more.

¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout to the Rock of our salvation! ² Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him in song. ³ For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.

³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

² Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

¹⁵ When a king’s face brightens, there is life; his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.

² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.” ³ With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, ⁴ and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted. ⁵ Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. ⁶ Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

²¹ And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

²³ Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.

¹⁶ You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁰ I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

³ Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

²⁴ They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

² How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

³ So let us know—let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.

²⁸ And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. ²⁹ Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

⁷ “I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

¹⁴ Sing for joy, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ The LORD has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the LORD, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹³ For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.

¹ Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; the LORD makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.

⁷ Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the LORD.

⁴⁶ Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

⁸ This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.” ⁹ What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended first to the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things. ¹¹ And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

¹ Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains. ⁸ You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

¹⁰ You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new.

⁹ Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your harvest; ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

¹³ Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.

¹⁸ And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water, and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD to water the Valley of Acacias.

¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow.

¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

⁶ I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the LORD their God, and I will answer them.

¹¹ Please accept my gift that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.

⁵ Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

²⁶ When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

¹¹ with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹⁰ When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you.

⁷ There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

¹² And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

¹⁸ Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,

¹⁰ And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me.” Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him. ¹¹ So you shall rejoice—you, the Levite, and the foreigner dwelling among you—in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.

²⁵ They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.

⁶ I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.

²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him. May your hearts live forever!

² in You, my God, I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. ³ Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who are faithless without cause will be disgraced.

¹⁹ In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.

¹⁸ Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

⁵ who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁷ Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

²⁵ A righteous man eats to his heart’s content, but the stomach of the wicked is empty.

¹ I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.

¹ O LORD, You are my God! I will exalt You; I will praise Your name. For You have worked wonders—plans formed long ago—in perfect faithfulness.

²² Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed and no more will his face grow pale.

¹⁷ But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or humiliated, to ages everlasting.

²³ Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

² Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.

²⁰ The northern army I will drive away from you, banishing it to a barren and desolate land, its front ranks into the Eastern Sea, and its rear guard into the Western Sea. And its stench will rise; its foul odor will ascend. For He has done great things. ²¹ Do not be afraid, O land; rejoice and be glad, for the LORD has done great things.

¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.

¹⁵ The LORD of Hosts will shield them. They will destroy and conquer with slingstones; they will drink and roar as with wine. And they will be filled like sprinkling bowls, drenched like the corners of the altar.

¹⁷ How lovely they will be, and how beautiful! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine, the young women.

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

³³ as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

¹¹ It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

³ They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, ⁵ because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

¹⁷ Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in the living God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

²⁸ And now, little children, remain in Christ, so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.

¹¹ And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

¹⁴ For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

⁵ God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

¹⁸ You have ascended on high; You have led captives away. You have received gifts from men, even from the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.

⁶ Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

¹⁸ For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

²¹ Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me. ²² Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

⁶ We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

²⁶ And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷ My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

²² From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.

²⁸ Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations.

²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame.

¹⁷ The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

¹⁶ What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

⁶ For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them.

⁵ Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.” ⁸ “Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements. ⁹ Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰ He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

⁶ He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.

²³ If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.

¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.

⁵ And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

³ For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.

⁶ He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

¹³ Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.

²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.

¹⁰ Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

⁶ And all humanity will see God’s salvation.’”

³⁹ He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

² Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. ¹⁸ Even on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. ¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. ²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord. ²¹ And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

³³ Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

³⁹ This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard his message. ⁴⁵ All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!”

¹⁵ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I remembered the word of the Lord, as He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?” ¹⁸ When they heard this, their objections were put to rest, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

⁷ After much debate, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among us that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us.

⁹ He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given into one Spirit to drink.

¹¹ Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

²⁰ When the men of Ai turned and looked back, the smoke of the city was rising into the sky. They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now became the pursuers.

³⁸ The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city,

⁴⁰ But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, the Benjamites looked behind them and saw the whole city going up in smoke.

⁶ Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?

¹¹ There will be great earthquakes in various places, famines and pestilences, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. ²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.

¹² And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³ and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴ The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. ¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. ¹⁷ For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

⁹ Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

¹⁸ and cry out at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. “What city was ever like this great city?” they will exclaim.

⁹ Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

⁴ All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree. ⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

¹⁰ Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.

¹ “Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity,

¹⁵ The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.

¹⁴ The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter. ¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, ¹⁶ a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.

⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

⁴⁵ From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

²⁵ There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

¹² And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³ and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.

¹⁵ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

² On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

²² Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

¹¹ On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹⁶ There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

¹³ I am bringing My righteousness near; it is not far away, and My salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion and adorn Israel with My splendor.

²⁰ “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD. ²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.

⁷ For this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’

¹⁷ But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will reclaim their possession.

²¹ The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will belong to the LORD.

⁶ “On that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted. ⁷ And I will make the lame into a remnant, and the outcast into a strong nation. Then the LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.

³ Therefore Israel will be abandoned until she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers will return to the children of Israel.

⁷ Then the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger for mankind. ⁸ Then the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which tramples and tears as it passes through, with no one to rescue them.

⁹ This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.

¹⁷ so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

²⁴ including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

¹¹ It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴ How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?

⁵ In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁷ What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,

²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob.

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

¹³ But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. ¹⁴ To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²² Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels