Study Desk

Blow the trumpet in Zion [warning of impending judgment], Sound an alarm on My holy mountain [Zion]! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble and shudder in fear, For the [judgment] day of the LORD is coming; It is close at hand,

A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and of thick [dark] mist, Like the dawn spread over the mountains; There is a [pagan, hostile] people numerous and mighty, The like of which has never been before Nor will be again afterward Even for years of many generations.

The LORD utters His voice before His army, For His camp is very great, Because strong and powerful is he who [obediently] carries out His word. For the day of the LORD is indeed great and very terrible [causing dread]; Who can endure it?

Rip your heart to pieces [in sorrow and contrition] and not your garments." Now return [in repentance] to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness [faithful to His covenant with His people]; And He relents [His sentence of] evil [when His people genuinely repent].

Who knows whether He will relent [and revoke your sentence], And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering [from the bounty He provides you] For the LORD your God?

Then the LORD will be jealous for His land [ready to defend it since it is rightfully and uniquely His] And will have compassion on His people [and will spare them].

"But I will remove the northern army far away from you, And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, With its forward guard into the eastern sea (Dead Sea) And with its rear guard into the western sea (Mediterranean Sea). And its stench will arise and its foul odor of decay will come up [this is the fate of the northern army in the final day of the LORD], For He has done great things."

Do not fear, O land; be glad and rejoice, For the LORD has done great things!

Do not be afraid, you animals of the field, For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green; The tree has produced its fruit, And the fig tree and the vine have yielded in full.

So rejoice, O children of Zion, And delight in the LORD, your God; For He has given you the early [autumn] rain in vindication And He has poured down the rain for you, The early [autumn] rain and the late [spring] rain, as before.

"And I will compensate you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust— My great army which I sent among you.

"And it shall come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be saved [from the coming judgment] For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the remnant [of survivors] whom the LORD calls.

"For behold, in those [climactic] days and at that time, When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people] And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the LORD has judged). And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.

"They have also cast lots for My people, And have traded a boy for a prostitute And have sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

"Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the [five small] regions of Philistia? Will you pay Me back for something [I have supposedly done to you]? Even if you do pay Me back, I will swiftly and speedily return your deed [of retaliation] on your own head.

"Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.

Let the nations be stirred [to action] And come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge and punish All the surrounding nations.

Put in the sickle [of judgment], for the harvest is ripe; Come, tread [the grapes], for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for the wickedness [of the people] is great.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (judgment)! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision [when judgment is executed].