Joel 2:16-18

Easy-to-Read Version

¹⁶ Bring the people together.
    Call for a special meeting.
Bring together the old men,
    the children, and the small babies still at their mothers’ breasts.
Let the bride and her new husband
    come from their bedroom.
¹⁷ Let the priests, the Lord’s servants,
    cry between the porch^[a] and the altar.
All of them should say this: “Lord, have mercy on your people.
    Don’t let your people be put to shame.
    Don’t let other people tell jokes about your people.
Don’t let the other nations laugh at us and say,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁸ Then the Lord cared very much about his land.
    He felt sorry for his people.