Joel 1:15-2:2

English Standard Version

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

¹⁷^(C)The seed shrivels under the clods;^[b]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because ^(D)the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How ^(E)the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.^[c]

¹⁹To you, ^(F)O Lord, I call.
^(G)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(H)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field ^(I)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(J)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

The Day of the Lord

2 ^(K)Blow a trumpet in ^(L)Zion;
    sound an alarm on ^(M)my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for ^(N)the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
²^(O)a day of darkness and gloom,
    ^(P)a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    ^(Q)a great and powerful people;
^(R)their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.