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Joel 2

Blow a trumpet in Zion,
And make a loud shout on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of Yahweh is coming;
Surely it is near,
2
A day of darkness and thick darkness,
A day of clouds and dense gloom.
As the dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a numerous and mighty people;
There has never been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
For the years from generation to generation.
3
A fire consumes before them,
And behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them
But a desolate wilderness behind them,
And nothing at all escapes them.
4
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like war horses, so they run.
5
With a noise as of chariots
They leap on the tops of the mountains,
Like the crackling of a flame of fire consumes the stubble,
Like a mighty people arranged for battle.
6
Before them the peoples are writhing;
All faces turn pale.
7
They run like mighty men;
They climb up the wall like men of war;
And they each march in line,
And they do not deviate from their paths.
8
They do not crowd each other;
They march everyone in his path;
When they fall against the defending weapons,
They do not break ranks.
9
They rush on the city;
They run on the wall;
They climb up into the houses;
They enter through the windows like a thief.
10
Before them the earth trembles;
The heavens quake;
The sun and the moon grow dark,
And the stars lose their brightness.
11
But Yahweh gives forth His voice before His military force;
Surely His camp is very numerous,
For mighty is he who does His word.
The day of Yahweh is indeed great and very awesome,
And who can endure it?

Return to Yahweh

12
“Yet even now,” declares Yahweh,
“Return to Me with all your heart
And with fasting, weeping, and wailing;
13
And tear your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to Yahweh your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness,
And relenting concerning evil.
14
Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him,
Even a grain offering and a drink offering
For Yahweh your God?
15
Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Set apart a fast as holy, call for a solemn assembly,
16
Gather the people, set apart the congregation as holy,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the infants and the nursing babies.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
17
Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, “Pity Your people, O Yahweh,
And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,
A byword among the nations.
Why should they among the peoples say,
‘Where is their God?’”

Yahweh Will Spare His People

18
Then Yahweh will be zealous for His land
And will spare His people.
19
Then Yahweh will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine, and oil,
And you will be satisfied in full with them;
And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.
20
But I will remove the northern military force far from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
And its vanguard into the eastern sea,
And its rear guard into the western sea.
And its stench will rise up, and its foul smell will rise up,
For it has done great things.”

21
Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,
For Yahweh has done great things.
22
Do not fear, beasts of the field,
For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green,
For the tree has borne its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine have yielded their full force.
23
So rejoice, O sons of Zion,
And be glad in Yahweh your God,
For He has given you the early rain in righteousness.
And He has poured down for you the rain,
The early and late rains as before.
24
The threshing floors will be full of grain,
And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil.
25
“Then I will pay back to you in full for the years
That the swarming locust has consumed,
The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust,
My great military force which I sent among you.
26
And you will have plenty to consume and be satisfied
And praise the name of Yahweh your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
Then My people will never be put to shame.
27
Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And that I am Yahweh your God,
And there is no other;
And My people will never be put to shame.

Yahweh Will Pour Out His Spirit

28
“And it will be afterwards
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy;
Your old men will dream dreams;
Your young men will see visions.
29
Even on the male slaves and female slaves
I will in those days pour out My Spirit.

Deliverance in the Day of Yahweh

30
And I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire, and columns of smoke.
31
The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes.
32
And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh
Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As Yahweh has said,
Even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.

Revelation 11

The Two Witnesses

Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, saying, “Get up and measure the sanctuary of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.
2 And leave out the court which is outside the sanctuary and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city under foot for forty-two months. 3 And I will give authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone wishes to harm them, fire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wishes to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6 These have the authority to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; they also have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they wish. 7 And when they have finished their witness, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 And those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. 12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

The Seventh Trumpet

15 Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. 18 And the nations were enraged, and Your rage came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Your slaves—the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19 And the sanctuary of God which is in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Ecclesiastes 10

The Folly of a Simpleminded Fool

Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little simpleminded folly is weightier than wisdom and honor.
2 A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left. 3 Even when the simpleminded fool walks along the road, his heart lacks wisdom, and he says to all that he is a simpleminded fool. 4 If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because calmness causes great offenses to be abandoned. 5 There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake which goes forth from the one in power— 6 folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places. 7 I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land. 8 He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them. 10 If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success. 11 If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no advantage for the charmer. 12 Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a fool swallow him up; 13 the beginning of the words of his mouth is simpleminded folly, and the end of what comes from his mouth is evil madness. 14 Yet the simpleminded fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him? 15 The labor of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city. 16 Woe to you, O land, whose king is a young man and whose princes eat in the morning. 17 Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for might and not for drinking. 18 Through indolence the beams sag, and through slack hands the house leaks. 19 Men prepare bread for laughter, and wine makes life glad, and money is the answer to everything. 20 Furthermore, in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the sky will bring the sound and the winged creature will tell the matter.