Joel.

"What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten."

I really like the repetition of these lines in chapter one of Joel. It has the effect of emphasizing the message that the land is going to be stripped bare. All three of the phrases are structured in the same way: what this kind of locust has left, this kind of locust has eaten. The descriptive words defining the types of locusts have to do with action, which emphasizes both the literary effect and the reality of the message (barrenness). The words sound good because they are so similar and they are easy to comprehend.

"The seeds shrivel under their clods; the storehouses are desolate, the barns are torn down, for the grain is dried up."

The first thing I heard in these lines was the alliteration of the "s" sound. I like how the first three lines explain what happened, and then how the last line reveals why. Literary repetition with the use of "are" and "is" at the end of the lines makes it easy to listen to while clearly stating the message.

"For the day of the LORD is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness."

By repeating the word "day," this passage expands upon the definition of this event and what the day will look like. The first and second lines end somewhat triumphantly, leaving the reader expecting more. The second two lines end with a lower tone, a lower sound, giving finality to the thought and supporting the thought of darkness.

"A fire consumes before them / and behind them a flame burns / the land is like the garden of Eden before them / but a desolate wilderness behind them / and nothing at all escapes them."

This part stood out to me because of the use of "them" in each line. Similar to the pattern of the previous lines, they have an up, down, up, down, down sort of sound to them at the end of each line, with the last line again having an ending sound to it. Also, the use of "before" and "behind" makes the passage flow.

"Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like war horses, so they run."

These may be some of my favorite lines in the book. A simile is built upon a simile. The image is concise and the sound is simple.