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12 For the Lord of hosts will have his day
    against all that is proud and arrogant,
    against all that is high, and it will be brought low;
13 Yes, against all the cedars of Lebanon[a]
    and against all the oaks of Bashan,
14 Against all the lofty mountains
    and all the high hills,
15 Against every lofty tower
    and every fortified wall,
16 Against all the ships of Tarshish
    and all stately vessels.
17 Then human pride shall be abased,
    the arrogance of mortals brought low,
And the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.
18     The idols will vanish completely.
19 People will go into caves in the rocks
    and into holes in the earth,
At the terror of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty,
    as he rises to overawe the earth.
20 On that day people shall throw to moles and bats
    their idols of silver and their idols of gold
    which they made for themselves to worship.
21 And they shall go into caverns in the rocks
    and into crevices in the cliffs,
At the terror of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty,
    as he rises to overawe the earth.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:13 Lebanon: Mount Lebanon in Syria, famed for its cedars. Bashan: the fertile uplands east of the Sea of Galilee.

10 Today belongs to the Lord God of hosts,
    a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes!
The sword devours and is sated, drunk with their blood:
    for the Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice
    in the land of the north, on the River Euphrates.(A)

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Second Woe

18 Woe to those who yearn
    for the day of the Lord![a]
What will the day of the Lord mean for you?
    It will be darkness, not light!(A)
19 As if someone fled from a lion
    and a bear met him;
Or as if on entering the house
    he rested his hand against the wall,
    and a snake bit it.
20 Truly, the day of the Lord will be darkness, not light,
    gloom without any brightness!

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Footnotes

  1. 5:18 The day of the Lord: first mentioned in Amos, this refers to a specific time in the future, known to the Lord alone, when God’s enemies would be decisively defeated. The common assumption among Israelites was that the Lord’s foes and Israel’s foes were one and the same. But Amos makes it clear that because the people have become God’s enemies by refusing to heed the prophetic word, they too would experience the divine wrath on that fateful day. However, during the exile this expression comes to mean a time when God would avenge Israel against its oppressors and bring about its restoration (Jer 50:27; Ez 30:3–5).

15 O! The day![a]
    For near is the day of the Lord,
    like destruction from the Almighty it is coming!(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:15 As in Am 5:18–20, the day of the Lord in Joel’s first speech brings punishment, not victory, for Judah. In his second speech, this event means victory for those faithful to the Lord and death for the nations who are the Lord’s enemies. Almighty: Hebrew shaddai. There is wordplay between shod (“destruction”) and shaddai.

Silence in the presence of the Lord God!
    for near is the day of the Lord,
Yes, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice,
    he has consecrated his guests.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:7 He has consecrated his guests: God has consecrated the troops, presumably foreign, who have been invited to share in the spoil on the day of slaughter.

17 because the great day of their[a] wrath has come and who can withstand it?”

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Footnotes

  1. 6:17 Their: this reading is attested in the best manuscripts, but the vast majority read “his” in reference to the wrath of the Lamb in the preceding verse.