Joel 2:1–11
And bsound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For cthe day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
2 dA day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
eA people come, great and strong,
fThe like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like gthe Garden of Eden before them,
hAnd behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 iTheir appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like 2swift steeds, so they run.
5 jWith a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
kAll faces 3are drained of color.
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break lranks.
8 They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own 4column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not 5cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They menter at the windows nlike a thief.
10 oThe earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
pThe sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 qThe Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
rFor strong is the One who executes His word.
For the sday of the Lord is great and very terrible;
tWho can endure it?