World English Bible · The Persian return
Joel 2
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Blow the in , and sound an alarm in my mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for comes, for it is close at hand: A day of and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick . As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. A devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as before them, and behind them, a desolate . Yes, and no one has escaped them. Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. At their the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. They run like . They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don't swerve off course. One doesn't jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don't break ranks. They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves. The earth quakes before them. tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for is great and very awesome, and who can it? "Yet even now," , "turn to me with all , and with , and with weeping, and with ." Tear and not your garments, and turn to , your ; for he is and merciful, , and abundant in , and relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a behind him, even a and a drink to , your . Blow the in ! a . Call a solemn . Gather the people. . Assemble the . Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the go out of his room, and the out of her chamber. Let the priests, the ministers of , weep between the porch and the , and let them say, "Spare your people, , and don't give your heritage to , that the nations should them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their ?'" Then was his land, and had on his people. answered his people, "Behold, I will send you grain, , and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a among the nations. But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise." Surely he has done great things. Land, don't be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for has done great things. Don't be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and yield their strength. "Be glad then, you children of , and rejoice in , your ; for he gives you the in measure, and he causes the to come down for you, the and the , as before. The will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming has eaten, the great , the , and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and will the name of , your , who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed. You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am , your , and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed. "It will happen afterward, that I will pour out on ; and your sons and your daughters will . Your old men will . Your young men will see . And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out . I will show wonders in and in the earth: , , and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into , and the moon into , before the great and terrible comes. It will happen that whoever will call on name shall be ; for in Mount and in there will be those who escape, as has said, and among , those whom calls.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The Persian return, 539 BC to 332 BC ›
Persia takes Babylon and reverses its policy, sending exiled peoples home to rebuild their temples. Judah returns as a small province, rebuilding under imperial permission rather than independence.
- Persia
- The largest empire the world had yet seen, from the Indus to the Aegean, run through provinces, a royal road, and a postal system. Its policy on conquered peoples was to send them home and fund their temples, in exchange for loyalty and prayers for the king. The Cyrus Cylinder states the policy in Cyrus's own words, and Ezra opens with the same policy applied to Judah.
- Judah
- A small, poor province called Yehud, a fraction of the old kingdom, with a rebuilt temple that made the people who remembered the first one weep. No king, and no prospect of one. Leadership passes to priests and scribes, which shapes everything afterward.
- Greece
- Persia and Greece collide at Marathon and Salamis, Persia loses, and Athens spends the following decades on the Parthenon, tragedy, and Socrates. Herodotus writes the first history in order to explain that war. Then Plato and Aristotle, whose vocabulary the church will still be using at Nicaea eight centuries later.
- Further afield
- Rome throws out its kings and becomes a republic. In India and China this is the age of the Buddha's early followers and of Confucian teaching taking hold. More of what the world still thinks with was invented in this era than in almost any other.