The Armies

^{Joel 2:1} Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble,

for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand—

^{Joel 2:2} a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.

Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.

^{Joel 2:3} Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.

^{Joel 2:4} They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry.

^{Joel 2:5} With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

^{Joel 2:6} At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale.

^{Joel 2:7} They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.

^{Joel 2:8} They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks.

^{Joel 2:9} They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.

^{Joel 2:10} Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

^{Joel 2:11} The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

^{Joel 2:15} Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

^{Joel 2:16} 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.

^{Joel 2:17} Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, O 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?’ ”

The LORD'S Answer

^{Joel 2:18} Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people.

^{Joel 2:19} The LORD will reply to them: “I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.

^{Joel 2:20} “I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.”

^{Jer 4:19} Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart!

My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.

^{Jer 4:20} Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins. In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment.

^{Jer 4:21} How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

^{Jer 4:22} “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.”

^{Jer 4:23} I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone.

^{Jer 4:24} I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

^{Jer 4:25} I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away.

^{Jer 4:26} I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.

^{Jer 4:27} This is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely.

^{Jer 4:28} Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back.”

^{Jer 4:29} At the sound of horsemen and archers every town takes to flight. Some go into the thickets;

some climb up among the rocks. All the towns are deserted; no one lives in them.

^{Jer 4:30} What are you doing, O devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold?

Why shade your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.

^{Jer 4:31} I hear a cry as of a woman in labor, a groan as of one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, “Alas! I am fainting; my life is given over to murderers.”

^{Jer 6:17} I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’

^{Jer 6:18} Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them.

^{Jer 6:19} Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.

^{Jer 6:20} What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.”

^{Jer 6:21} Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I will put obstacles before this people. Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them; neighbors and friends will perish.”

^{Jer 6:22} This is what the LORD says: “Look, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth.

^{Jer 6:23} They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Zion.”

^{Jer 6:24} We have heard reports about them, and our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

^{Jer 6:25} Do not go out to the fields or walk on the roads, for the enemy has a sword, and there is terror on every side.

^{Jer 6:26} O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son,

for suddenly the destroyer (The beast) will come upon us.

^{Jer 51:27} “Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.

^{Jer 51:28} Prepare the nations for battle against her— the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.

^{Jer 51:29} The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD'S purposes against Babylon stand— to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.

^{Jer 51:30} Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.

^{Jer 51:31} One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured,

^{Jer 51:32} the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.”

^{Jer 51:33} This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”

^{Jer 51:34} “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies,

and then has spewed us out.

^{Jer 51:35} May the violence done to our flesh be upon Babylon,” say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem.

^{Jer 51:36} Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you;

I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

^{Jer 51:37} Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.

^{Jer 51:38} Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs.

^{Jer 51:39} But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk,so that they shout with laughter— then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD.

^{Jer 51:40} “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

^{Jer 51:41} “How Sheshach will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized!, What a horror Babylon will be among the nations!

^{Jer 51:42} The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.

^{Jer 51:43} Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no man travels.

^{Jer 51:44} I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.

^{Jer 51:45} “Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.

^{Jer 51:46} Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

^{Jer 51:47} For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.

^{Jer 51:48} Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north

destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD.

^{Jer 51:49} “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

^{Jer 51:50} You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and think on Jerusalem.”

^{Jer 51:51} “We are disgraced,for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD'S house.”

^{Jer 51:52} “But days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land

the wounded will groan.

^{Jer 51:53} Even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.

^{Jer 51:54} “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

^{Jer 51:55} The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.

^{Jer 51:56} A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God of retribution; he will repay in full.

^{Jer 51:57} I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

^{Jer 51:58} This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”