Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision! ¹ 

Blow the trumpet ¹  in Zion. Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly!

People ¹  writhe in fear when they see them. ²  All of their faces turn pale with fright. ³ 

Even on male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Listen to this, you elders; ¹  pay attention, ²  all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ³  or in the lifetime ⁴  of your ancestors? ⁵ 

I will produce portents both in the sky ¹  and on the earth – blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

(4:1) ¹  For look! In those ²  days and at that time I will return the exiles ³  to Judah and Jerusalem. ⁴ 

I will avenge ¹  their blood which I had not previously acquitted. It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Wail ¹  like a young virgin ²  clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of ³  her husband-to-be. ⁴ 

They rush into ¹  the city; they scale ²  its walls. They climb up into the houses; they go in through the windows like a thief.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ¹  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ² 

Blow the trumpet ¹  in Zion; sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the Lord is about to come. Indeed, ²  it is near! ³ 

Get dressed ¹  and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore. ² 

Egypt will be desolate and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, ¹  in whose land they shed innocent blood.

Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! ¹  There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God! ² 

No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple ¹  of the Lord anymore. ²  So the priests, those who serve the Lord, are in mourning.

Listen to the cattle groan! ¹  The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ²  because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God; there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

I will remove the one from the north ¹  far from you. I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, ²  and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. ³  His stench will rise up as a foul smell.” ⁴  Indeed, the Lord ⁵  has accomplished great things.

The crops of the fields ¹  have been destroyed. ²  The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished. The fresh wine has dried up; the olive oil languishes.