Joel 2:2-10

2It will be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds, like blackness spread over the mountains. It is a huge and powerful army – there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!

3Like fire they devour everything in their path; a flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness – for nothing escapes them!

4They look like horses; they charge ahead like war horses.

5They sound like chariots rumbling over mountain tops, like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble, like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle.

6People writhe in fear when they see them. All of their faces turn pale with fright.

7They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter their path.

8They do not jostle one another; each of them marches straight ahead. They burst through the city defenses and do not break ranks.

9They rush into the city; they scale its walls. They climb up into the houses; they go in through the windows like a thief.

10The earth quakes before them; the sky reverberates. The sun and the moon grow dark; the stars refuse to shine.