Joel 1:15-2:11

Revised Standard Version

¹⁵ Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷ The seed shrivels under the clods,^[a]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are ruined
    because the grain has failed.
¹⁸ How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.

¹⁹ Unto thee, O Lord, I cry.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the wild beasts cry to thee
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

2 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 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.

³ Fire 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.

⁴ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
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.
They march each on his way,
    they do not swerve^[b] from their paths.
⁸ They do not jostle one another,
    each marches in his path;
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.

¹⁰ The earth quakes before them,
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹ The 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?