Joel 2:1-8 ▼

1 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an 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 before, 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 behind 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 from their paths.

8 They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.