Joel 1:4-7
New King James Version
4 (A)What the chewing [a]locust left, the (B)swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
5 Awake, you (C)drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
(D)For it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For (E)a nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
(F)His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a [b]fierce lion.
7 He has (G)laid waste My vine,
And [c]ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.
Joel 2:2-11
New King James Version
2 (A)A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
(B)A people come, great and strong,
(C)The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like (D)the Garden of Eden before them,
(E)And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 (F)Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like [a]swift steeds, so they run.
5 (G)With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
(H)All faces [b]are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break (I)ranks.
8 They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own [c]column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not [d]cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They (J)enter at the windows (K)like a thief.
10 (L)The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
(M)The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 (N)The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
(O)For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the (P)day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
(Q)Who can endure it?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.