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¹⁵Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. ¹⁶Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed. ¹⁸How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander about because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dazed. ¹⁹To you, O Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field. ²⁰Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

2Blow the trumpet 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, it is near— ²a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come. ³Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. ⁴They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge. ⁵As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. ⁶Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale. ⁷Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course, they do not swerve from their paths. ⁸They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. ⁹They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. ¹⁰The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ¹¹The Lord utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it?