Joel 2:1-3

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.