V12: NOW therefore, Says the Lord, Turn to Me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
V13: So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
V14: Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him-a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
V15: Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate the fast, call a sacred assembly;
V16: Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room.
V17: Let the priests who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”
V18: Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people.
V19: The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
V20: But I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things.
V21: Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things:
Written by Pamela Baumann
