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They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.
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Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.
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The class="small-caps" >Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the class="small-caps" >Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?
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Rend Your Heart
“Even now,” declares the class="small-caps" >Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
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Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the class="small-caps" >Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
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Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the class="small-caps" >Lord your God.
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Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
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Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
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Let the priests, who minister before the class="small-caps" >Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, class="small-caps" >Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
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The class="small-caps" >Lord replied to them: “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.
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“I will drive the northern horde far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land; its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things!
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Do not be afraid, land of Judah; be glad and rejoice. Surely the class="small-caps" >Lord has done great things!
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Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
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Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the class="small-caps" >Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
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The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
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“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you.
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You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the class="small-caps" >Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
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Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the class="small-caps" >Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
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Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
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I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
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The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the class="small-caps" >Lord.
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And everyone who calls on the name of the class="small-caps" >Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the class="small-caps" >Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the class="small-caps" >Lord calls.
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I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.
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They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine to drink.
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“Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done.