Joel 2:2
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the Lord is about to come. Indeed, it is near! 2 It 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! 3 Like 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! 4 They look like horses; they charge ahead like war horses.
Zephaniah 1:15
13 Their wealth will be stolen and their houses ruined! They will not live in the houses they have built, nor will they drink the wine from the vineyards they have planted. 14 The Lord’s great day of judgment is almost here; it is approaching very rapidly! There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment; at that time warriors will cry out in battle. 15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, a day of distress and hardship, a day of devastation and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and dark skies, 16 a day of trumpet blasts and battle cries. Judgment will fall on the fortified cities and the high corner towers. 17 I will bring distress on the people and they will stumble like blind men, for they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dirt; their flesh will be scattered like manure.
Notes and References
"... On a linguistic level, Amos’s use of the language of “darkness” to describe the coming of Yahweh in judgment finds no verbal counterpart in the Sinai theophany of Exodus 19:24. Nevertheless, Amos’ use of the imagery of “darkness” to describe the judgment parousia of Yahweh finds a precedent in the Sinai theophany tradition found in Exodus 20:21, the latter of which describes Yahweh’s visible presence on Mount Sinai in terms of “thick darkness”. Moreover, both Zephaniah and Joel exploit the Sinai traditions of Exodus 19-24, making use of its theophanic language and imagery to describe the coming of Yahweh in judgment. Admittedly, both Zephaniah and Joel make use of the same vocabulary of “darkness and gloom” found in Amos 5:20 to describe the Day of the Lord. However, they also make use of theophanic imagery that clearly (Zephaniah appears to be dependent upon Amos for his use of the vocabulary of “darkness and gloom” in Zephaniah 1:15, while Joel 2:2 appears to be dependent upon Zephaniah rather than Amos) invokes the Sinai theophany traditions in Exodus 19-24, especially in their description of the DOL as “a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Zephaniah 1:15; Joel 2:2; compare Exodus 19:16; 20:21; 24:15-16), heralded by quaking (Joel 2:10; compare Exodus 19:18) and the sound of the dread trumpet ..."
Collett, Donald C. Prophetic Intentionality and the Book of the Twelve: A Study in the Hermeneutics of Prophecy (p. 207) University of St. Andrews, 2007