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16 The people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.(A)

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II. The Day of the Lord

Chapter 2

The Day Approaches

[a]Blow the horn in Zion,
    sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming!(A)
Yes, it approaches,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of thick clouds!
Like dawn[b] spreading over the mountains,
    a vast and mighty army!
Nothing like it has ever happened in ages past,
    nor will the future hold anything like it,
    even to the most distant generations.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 2:1–11 Joel warns the people about the destruction he sees galloping toward Jerusalem. He combines the imagery of the locust invasion (chap. 1) with language from the holy war tradition in order to describe the Lord leading a heavenly army against the enemy, in this case, Jerusalem.
  2. 2:2 Like dawn: from the east comes dark destruction rather than a new day’s light.

11 The Lord raises his voice
    at the head of his army;
How immense is his host!
    How numerous those who carry out his command!
How great is the day of the Lord!
    Utterly terrifying! Who can survive it?(A)

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14 Near is the great day of the Lord,
    near and very swiftly coming.
The sound of the day of the Lord! Piercing—
    there a warrior shrieks!
15 A day of wrath is that day,
    a day of distress and anguish,
    a day of ruin and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of thick black clouds,(A)
16 A day of trumpet blasts and battle cries
    against fortified cities,
    against lofty battlements.(B)
17 I will hem the people in
    till they walk like the blind,
    because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood shall be poured out like dust,
    and their bowels like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
    will be able to save them.
On the day of the Lord’s wrath,
    in the fire of his passion,
    all the earth will be consumed.
For he will make an end, yes, a sudden end,
    of all who live on the earth.(C)

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