Yesaya 5:30

5:30 At that time ¹  they will growl over their prey, ² 

it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. ³ 

One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster,

clouds will turn the light into darkness. ⁴ 

Yesaya 24:21

The Lord Will Become King

24:21 At that time ⁵  the Lord will punish ⁶ 

the heavenly forces in the heavens ⁷ 

and the earthly kings on the earth.

Yesaya 24:23

24:23 The full moon will be covered up, ⁸ 

the bright sun ⁹  will be darkened; ¹⁰ 

for the Lord who commands armies will rule ¹¹ 

on Mount Zion in Jerusalem ¹² 

in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor. ¹³ 

Yehezkiel 32:7-8

32:7 When I extinguish you, I will cover the sky;

I will darken its stars.

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

and the moon will not shine. ¹⁴ 

32:8 I will darken all the lights in the sky over you,

and I will darken your land,

declares the sovereign Lord.

Yoel 2:10

2:10 The earth quakes ¹⁵  before them; ¹⁶ 

the sky reverberates. ¹⁷ 

The sun and the moon grow dark;

the stars refuse to shine. ¹⁸ 

Yoel 2:31

2:31 The sunlight will be turned to darkness

and the moon to the color of blood, ¹⁹ 

before the day of the Lord comes –

that great and terrible day!

Yoel 3:15

3:15 The sun and moon are darkened;

the stars withhold ²⁰  their brightness.

Amos 8:9-10

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. ²¹ 

8:10 I will turn your festivals into funerals, ²² 

and all your songs into funeral dirges.

I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ²³ 

and cause every head to be shaved bald. ²⁴ 

I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ²⁵ 

when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ²⁶ 

Zefanya 1:15-16

1:15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, ²⁷ 

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,

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ²⁸  and battle cries. ²⁹ 

Judgment will fall on ³⁰  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

Matius 24:29

The Arrival of the Son of Man

24:29 “Immediately ³¹  after the suffering ³²  of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. ³³ 

Markus 13:24

The Arrival of the Son of Man

13:24 “But in those days, after that suffering, ³⁴  the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light;

Lukas 21:25

The Arrival of the Son of Man

21:25 “And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, ³⁵  and on the earth nations will be in distress, ³⁶  anxious ³⁷  over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves.

Wahyu 6:12-14

6:12 Then ³⁸  I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge ³⁹  earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, ⁴⁰  and the full moon became blood red; ⁴¹  6:13 and the stars in the sky ⁴²  fell to the earth like a fig tree dropping ⁴³  its unripe figs ⁴⁴  when shaken by a fierce ⁴⁵  wind. 6:14 The sky ⁴⁶  was split apart ⁴⁷  like a scroll being rolled up, ⁴⁸  and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

Wahyu 8:12

8:12 Then ⁴⁹  the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. And there was no light for a third of the day ⁵⁰  and for a third of the night likewise.

[5:30]  ¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[5:30]  ² tn Heb “over it”; the referent (the prey) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:30]  ³ tn Heb “like the growling of the sea.”

[5:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “and one will gaze toward the land, and look, darkness of distress, and light will grow dark by its [the land’s?] clouds.”

[5:30]  sn The motif of light turning to darkness is ironic when compared to v. 20. There the sinners turn light (= moral/ethical good) to darkness (= moral/ethical evil). Now ironically the Lord will turn light (= the sinners’ sphere of existence and life) into darkness (= the judgment and death).

[24:21]  ⁵ tn Or “in that day” (so KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[24:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “visit [in judgment].”

[24:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “the host of the height in the height.” The “host of the height/heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13).

[24:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “will be ashamed.”

[24:23]  ⁹ tn Or “glow of the sun.”

[24:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will be ashamed” (so NCV).

[24:23]  ¹¹ tn Or “take his throne,” “become king.”

[24:23]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “and before his elders [in] splendor.”

[32:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “will not shine its light.” For similar features of cosmic eschatology, see Joel 2:10; 4:15; Amos 5:18-20; Zeph 1:5.

[2:10]  ¹⁵ sn Witnesses of locust invasions have described the visual effect of large numbers of these creatures crawling over one another on the ground. At such times the ground is said to appear to be in motion, creating a dizzying effect on some observers. The reference in v. 10 to the darkening of the sun and moon probably has to do with the obscuring of visibility due to large numbers of locusts swarming in the sky.

[2:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “before it.”

[2:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “trembles.”

[2:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gather their brightness.”

[2:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to blood,” but no doubt this is intended to indicate by metonymy the color of blood rather than the substance itself. The blood red color suggests a visual impression here – something that could be caused by fires, volcanic dust, sandstorms, or other atmospheric phenomena.

[3:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “gather in.”

[8:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “in a day of light.”

[8:10]  ²² tn Heb “mourning.”

[8:10]  ²³ tn Heb “I will place sackcloth on all waists.”

[8:10]  sn Mourners wore sackcloth (funeral clothes) as an outward expression of grief.

[8:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and make every head bald.” This could be understood in a variety of ways, while the ritual act of mourning typically involved shaving the head (although occasionally the hair could be torn out as a sign of mourning).

[8:10]  sn Shaving the head or tearing out one’s hair was a ritual act of mourning. See Lev 21:5; Deut 14:1; Isa 3:24; 15:2; Jer 47:5; 48:37; Ezek 7:18; 27:31; Mic 1:16.

[8:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will make it like the mourning for an only son.”

[8:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and its end will be like a bitter day.” The Hebrew preposition כְּ (kaf) sometimes carries the force of “in every respect,” indicating identity rather than mere comparison.

[1:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a day of wrath.” The word “God’s” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

[1:16]  ²⁹ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

[1:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[24:29]  ³¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:29]  ³² tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”

[24:29]  ³³ sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.

[13:24]  ³⁴ tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”

[21:25]  ³⁵ sn Signs in the sun and moon and stars are cosmic signs that turn our attention to the end and the Son of Man’s return for the righteous. OT imagery is present: See Isa 13:9-10; 24:18-20; 34:4; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 2:1, 30-31; 3:15.

[21:25]  ³⁶ tn Grk “distress of nations.”

[21:25]  ³⁷ tn Or “in consternation” (L&N 32.9).

[6:12]  ³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[6:12]  ³⁹ tn Or “powerful”; Grk “a great.”

[6:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “like hairy sackcloth” (L&N 8.13).

[6:12]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “like blood,” understanding αἷμα (aima) as a blood-red color rather than actual blood (L&N 8.64).

[6:13]  ⁴² tn Or “in heaven” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”). The genitive τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (tou ouranou) is taken as a genitive of place.

[6:13]  ⁴³ tn Grk “throws [off]”; the indicative verb has been translated as a participle due to English style.

[6:13]  ⁴⁴ tn L&N 3.37 states, “a fig produced late in the summer season (and often falling off before it ripens) – ‘late fig.’ ὡς συκὴ βάλλει τοὺς ὀλύνθους αὐτῆς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου μεγάλου σειομένη ‘as the fig tree sheds its late figs when shaken by a great wind’ Re 6:13. In the only context in which ὄλυνθος occurs in the NT (Re 6:13), one may employ an expression such as ‘unripe fig’ or ‘fig which ripens late.’”

[6:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “great wind.”

[6:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “The heavens were.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) can mean either “heaven” or “sky.”

[6:14]  ⁴⁷ tn BDAG 125 s.v. ἀποχωρίζω states, “ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη the sky was split Rv 6:14.” Although L&N 79.120 gives the meaning “the sky disappeared like a rolled-up scroll” here, a scroll that is rolled up does not “disappear,” and such a translation could be difficult for modern readers to understand.

[6:14]  ⁴⁸ tn On this term BDAG 317 s.v. ἑλίσσω states, “ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον like a scroll that is rolled up…Rv 6:14.”

[8:12]  ⁴⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[8:12]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “the day did not shine [with respect to] the third of it.”