A warning about the locusts

2 Blow trumpets on Zion Hill,

God’s sacred hill in Jerusalem!

Tell the people of Judah that they should tremble,

because it will soon be the time for Yahweh to punish us further.

2 That will be a very dark and gloomy day;

there will be black clouds and it will be very dark.

A huge swarm of locusts has covered the mountains like [SIM] a black cloud.

Nothing like this has ever happened before,

and nothing like this will ever happen again.

3 It is as though the locusts bring flames of fire

from which no one can escape.

In front of them, the land was beautiful like [SIM] the garden of Eden,

but behind them the land is like a desert

and nothing survives.

4 The locusts resemble horses,

and they run like [SIM] war horses.

5 Leaping over the mountaintops,

they make a noise like rumbling chariots,

like [SIM] a mighty army that is preparing for a battle,

or like [SIM] the roar of a fire that burns up stubble in a field.

6 When people see them coming,

they become very pale and frightened.

7 The locusts climb over walls like soldiers do;

they march along in columns

and never turn aside from their columns.

8 They rush straight ahead

without pushing each other.

Even though people throw spears and javelins at them,

that will not cause them to stop.

9 They swarm over the city walls and enter our houses;

they enter through our windows like [SIM] thieves do.

10 It is as though they cause the earth to shake and the sky to tremble.

The sun and the moon become dark

and the stars do not shine

because there are so many locusts in the sky.

11 Yahweh leads this army of countless locusts,

and they obey his commands.

This time when he is judging and punishing us is very terrible,

with the result that it seems that no one [RHQ] can survive it.