Joel 1:15–2:11

¹⁵Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

¹⁶Is not the food cut off

before our eyes,

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods,^a

the storehouses are desolate;

the granaries are ruined

because the grain has failed.

¹⁸How the beasts groan!

The herds of cattle are perplexed

because there is no pasture for them;

even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.

¹⁹Unto thee, O Lord, I cry.

For fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

and flame has burned

all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the wild beasts cry to thee

because the water brooks are dried up,

and fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness.

Chapter 2

¹Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,

²a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

a great and powerful people;

their like has never been from of old,

nor will be again after them

through the years of all generations.

³Fire devours before them,

and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them,

but after them a desolate wilderness,

and nothing escapes them.

⁴Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,

and like war horses they run.

⁵As with the rumbling of chariots,

they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of a flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

like a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish,

all faces grow pale.

⁷Like warriors they charge,

like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way,

they do not swerve from their paths.

⁸They do not jostle one another,

each marches in his path;

they burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

⁹They leap upon the city,

they run upon the walls;

they climb up into the houses,

they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them,

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹¹The Lord utters his voice

before his army,

for his host is exceedingly great;

he that executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;

who can endure it?