Joel 2:1-9 ▼

1 Blow 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—

2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.

3 Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

4 They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge.

5 As 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.

6 Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale.

7 Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. Each keeps to its own course, they do not swerve from their paths.

8 They do not jostle one another, each keeps to its own track; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.

9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.