rsv Joel:2:2-11
rsv@Joel:2:2 @ 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.
rsv@Joel:2:3 @ 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.
rsv@Joel:2:4 @ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.
rsv@Joel:2:5 @ 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.
rsv@Joel:2:6 @ Before them peoples are in anguish, all faces grow pale.
rsv@Joel:2:7 @ Like warriors they charge, like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way, they do not swerve from their paths.
rsv@Joel:2:8 @ They do not jostle one another, each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.
rsv@Joel:2:9 @ They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.
rsv@Joel:2:10 @ The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
rsv@Joel:2:11 @ 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?