Joel 2:2–11

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?