Joel 1:15-2:2

Common English Bible

¹⁵ What a terrible day!
    The day of the Lord is near;
        it comes like chaos from the Almighty.^[a]
16 Isn’t the food cut off
    right before our eyes?
    Aren’t joy and gladness also gone from our God’s house?
¹⁷ The grain shrivels under the shovels;^[b]
    the barns are empty.
The granaries are in ruin
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How the animals groan!
    Herds of cattle are in distress
        because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep pant.

¹⁹ To you, Lord, I cry,
    for fire has completely destroyed
        the pastures of the wilderness;
    and flames have burned
        all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the field’s wild animals cry to you
        because the streams have dried up;
    the fire has completely destroyed
        the meadows of the wilderness.

2 Blow the horn in Zion;
    give a shout on my holy mountain!
Let all the people of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is near—
²     a day of darkness and no light,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread out upon the mountains,
    a great and powerful army^[c] comes,
        unlike any that has ever come before them,
        or will come after them in centuries ahead.