Joel 2:2–10

²A day of ^adarkness and thick darkness,

A day of clouds and dense gloom.

As the dawn is spread over the mountains,

So there is a ^bnumerous and mighty people;

There has ^cnever been anything like it,

Nor will there be again after it

For the years from generation to generation.

³A ^afire consumes before them,

And behind them a flame burns.

The land is ^blike the garden of Eden before them

But a ^cdesolate wilderness behind them,

And nothing at all escapes them.

⁴Their ^aappearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like war horses, so they run.

⁵¹With a ^anoise as of chariots

They leap on the tops of the mountains,

Like the ²crackling of a ^bflame of fire consumes the stubble,

Like a mighty people arranged for battle.

⁶Before them the peoples are ^awrithing;

All ^bfaces ¹turn pale.

⁷They run like mighty men;

They climb up the wall like men of war;

And they each ^amarch ¹in line,

And they do not deviate from their paths.

⁸They do not crowd each other;

They march everyone in his path;

When they fall against the defending weapons,

They do not break ranks.

⁹They rush on the city;

They run on the wall;

They climb up into the ^ahouses;

They ^benter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰Before them the earth ^atrembles;

The heavens quake;

The ^bsun and the moon grow dark,

And the stars ¹lose their brightness.