Joel 2:1-13

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

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^[a] 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?

¹² “Yet even now,” says the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord, your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
    and repents of evil.