1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all dwellers in the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming.
Yes, the day is fast approaching –
2 a day of gloom and darkness, a day of clouds and blackness.
A vast and mighty army comes,
like dawn spreading over the mountain, such as has never occurred be- fore nor will happen again in the future.
3 In front a fire devours,
behind a flame consumes.
The land ahead that appears like a garden soon becomes like a desert,
nothing escapes their onslaught.
4 They look like horses,
they gallop along like chargers.
5 With the clattering of chariots,
they leap over the mountains;
with crackling like burning stubble,
they charge – a mighty army arrayed for battle.
6 Before them nations are appalled,
and every face turns pale.
7 They attack like warriors;
they scale walls like soldiers.
Marching in line, they move onward
without swerving from their course,
8 without jostling one another, every one of them marches straight ahead;
amid a hail of arrows they run,
they press without breaking ranks.
9 They rush upon the city;
they leap over the walls;
they break into the houses,
like thieves enter through the windows.
10 Before them the earth shakes
and the heavens tremble,
the sun and moon grow dark
and the stars lose their twinkle.
11 Yahweh thunders before his army,
his vast and mighty forces.
The day of Yahweh is exceedingly great, terrible and dreadful – who can endure it?
Return to me with weeping
12 Yahweh says, “Yet even now, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning.
13 Rend your heart, not your garment. Return to Yahweh, your God – gracious and com passionate.”
Yahweh is slow to anger, full of kindness, and he repents of having punished.
14 Who knows? Probably he will relent once more and spare some part of the harvest from which we may bring sacred offerings to Yah weh, your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, pro claim a sacred fast, call a solemn assembly.
16 Gather the people, sanctify the community, bring together the elders, even the children and infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his bed, and the bride her room.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar, let the priests, Yahweh’s ministers, weep and say: Spare your people, Yahweh. Do not humble them or make them an object of scorn among the nations. Why should it be said among the peo ples: Where is their God?
18 Yahweh has become jealous for his land; he has had pity on his people.
19 Yahweh has given an answer; he says to them, “I am send ing you grain, new wine and oil which will fully satisfy you; never again will you be scorned by the nations.
20 I will drive far from you the enemy from the North and pursue him towards a land of drought and desolation: his vanguard to the Eastern Sea, his rearguard to the Western Sea. Its stench will rise everywhere. See that I do great things.”
21 Fear not, O earth! exult and rejoice for Yahweh has acted magnificently!
22 Do not be afraid, beasts of the field, for the desert prairies are green again, the trees are with fruit, the fig tree and the vine have yielded their riches.
23 Sons of Zion, be glad! Rejoice in Yahweh your God, for he has sent you the blessing of autumn rain and showers – the autumn and spring rains as in the past.
24 The threshing-floors will be full of grain, the vats overflowing with new wine and oil.
25 I will compensate you for the years de vastated by grasshoppers, may-bugs, crickets and locusts – the powerful army I sent against you.
26 You will eat and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of Yahweh, your God, who has done wonders for you.
27 And then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, I, Yahweh your God, no other! Never again will my people be shamed.
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Comments Joel, Chapter 2
• 2.12 Return to me with your whole heart: an invitation to penance. In times of hardship, pub lic fasts were proclaimed in Israel. People would wear mourning clothes, or they would replace their clothes with sackcloth, or they would not comb their hair and cover their faces with ashes. In the Gospel, Jesus will not say that these signs of physical penance, like fasting to express sorrow and to accompany prayer, are useless (see Mt 4:1 and Mk 2:20), but will make it clear that these external signs of penance are not everything, nor are they what is most important.