Yoel 2:1

The Locusts’ Devastation

2:1 Blow the trumpet ¹  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, ²  it is near! ³ 

Mazmur 37:13

37:13 The Lord laughs in disgust ⁴  at them,

for he knows that their day is coming. ⁵ 

Yesaya 13:6-9

13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment ⁶  is near;

it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge. ⁷ 

13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp, ⁸ 

every human heart loses its courage. ⁹ 

13:8 They panic –

cramps and pain seize hold of them

like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.

They look at one another in astonishment;

their faces are flushed red. ¹⁰ 

13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment ¹¹  is coming;

it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, ¹² 

destroying ¹³  the earth ¹⁴ 

and annihilating its sinners.

Yehezkiel 7:2-12

7:2 “You, son of man – this is what the sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land! ¹⁵  7:3 The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge ¹⁶  you according to your behavior, ¹⁷  I will hold you accountable for ¹⁸  all your abominable practices. 7:4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ¹⁹  you. ²⁰  For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, ²¹  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. ²²  Then you will know that I am the Lord!

7:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: A disaster ²³  – a one-of-a-kind ²⁴  disaster – is coming! 7:6 An end comes ²⁵  – the end comes! ²⁶  It has awakened against you ²⁷  – the end is upon you! Look, it is coming! ²⁸  7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ²⁹  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ³⁰  7:8 Soon now I will pour out my rage ³¹  on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 7:9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ³²  you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, ³³  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. ³⁴ 

7:10 “Look, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out! The staff has budded, pride has blossomed! 7:11 Violence ³⁵  has grown into a staff that supports wickedness. Not one of them will be left ³⁶  – not from their crowd, not from their wealth, not from their prominence. ³⁷  7:12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ³⁸  comes against their whole crowd.

Yehezkiel 12:22-28

12:22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’? 12:23 Therefore tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: I hereby end this proverb; they will not recite it in Israel any longer.’ But say to them, ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled. ³⁹  12:24 For there will no longer be any false visions or flattering omens amidst the house of Israel. 12:25 For I, the Lord, will speak. Whatever word I speak will be accomplished. It will not be delayed any longer. Indeed in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and accomplish it, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

12:26 The word of the Lord came to me: 12:27 “Take note, son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days; he is prophesying about the far future.’ 12:28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer! The word I speak will come to pass, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Zefanya 1:14-18

1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment ⁴⁰  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. ⁴¹ 

1:15 That day will be a day of God’s anger, ⁴² 

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 ⁴³  and battle cries. ⁴⁴ 

Judgment will fall on ⁴⁵  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ⁴⁶ 

and they will stumble ⁴⁷  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ⁴⁸  will be scattered ⁴⁹  like manure.

1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

The whole earth ⁵⁰  will be consumed by his fiery wrath. ⁵¹ 

Indeed, ⁵²  he will bring terrifying destruction ⁵³  on all who live on the earth.” ⁵⁴ 

Lukas 19:41-44

Jesus Weeps for Jerusalem under Judgment

19:41 Now ⁵⁵  when Jesus ⁵⁶  approached ⁵⁷  and saw the city, he wept over it, 19:42 saying, “If you had only known on this day, ⁵⁸  even you, the things that make for peace! ⁵⁹  But now they are hidden ⁶⁰  from your eyes. 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ⁶¹  an embankment ⁶²  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ⁶³  – you and your children within your walls ⁶⁴  – and they will not leave within you one stone ⁶⁵  on top of another, ⁶⁶  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁶⁷ 

Yakobus 5:9

5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, ⁶⁸  so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates! ⁶⁹ 

Wahyu 6:17

6:17 because the great day of their ⁷⁰  wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” ⁷¹ 

[2:1]  ¹ tn The word translated “trumpet” here (so most English versions) is the Hebrew שׁוֹפָר (shofar). The shophar was a wind instrument made from a cow or ram’s horn and used as a military instrument for calling people to attention in the face of danger or as a religious instrument for calling people to occasions of communal celebration.

[2:1]  ² tn Or “for.”

[2:1]  ³ sn The interpretation of 2:1-11 is very difficult. Four views may be mentioned here. (1) Some commentators understand this section to be describing a human invasion of Judah on the part of an ancient army. The exact identity of this army (e.g., Assyrian or Babylonian) varies among interpreters depending upon issues of dating for the book of Joel. (2) Some commentators take the section to describe an eschatological scene in which the army according to some is human, or according to others is nonhuman (i.e., angelic). (3) Some interpreters argue for taking the section to refer to the potential advent in the fall season of a severe east wind (i.e., Sirocco) that would further exacerbate the conditions of the land described in chapter one. (4) Finally, some interpreters understand the section to continue the discussion of locust invasion and drought described in chapter one, partly on the basis that there is no clear exegetical evidence in 2:1-11 to suggest a shift of referent from that of chapter one.

[37:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “laughs.” As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter (see 2:4). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes the action from the perspective of an eye-witness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.

[37:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “for he sees that his day is coming.” As the following context makes clear (vv. 15, 17, 19-20), “his day” refers to the time when God will destroy evildoers.

[13:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “the day of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).

[13:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “like destruction from the sovereign judge it comes.” The comparative preposition (כְּ, kÿ) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the destruction unleashed will have all the earmarks of divine judgment. One could paraphrase, “it comes as only destructive divine judgment can.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x.

[13:6]  sn The divine name used here is שַׁדַּי (shaddai, “Shaddai”). Shaddai (or El Shaddai) is the sovereign king/judge of the world who grants life/blesses and kills/judges. In Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai (Exod 6:3). While the origin and meaning of this name is uncertain (see discussion below) its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. In Gen 17:1-8 he appears to Abram, introduces himself as El Shaddai, and announces his intention to make the patriarch fruitful. In the role of El Shaddai God repeats these words (now elevated to the status of a decree) to Jacob (35:11). Earlier Isaac had pronounced a blessing upon Jacob in which he asked El Shaddai to make Jacob fruitful (28:3). Jacob later prays that his sons will be treated with mercy when they return to Egypt with Benjamin (43:14). The fertility theme is not as apparent here, though one must remember that Jacob viewed Benjamin as the sole remaining son of the favored and once-barren Rachel (cf. 29:31; 30:22-24; 35:16-18). It is quite natural that he would appeal to El Shaddai to preserve Benjamin’s life, for it was El Shaddai’s miraculous power which made it possible for Rachel to give him sons in the first place. In 48:3 Jacob, prior to blessing Joseph’s sons, tells him how El Shaddai appeared to him at Bethel (cf. chapter 28) and promised to make him fruitful. When blessing Joseph on his deathbed Jacob refers to Shaddai (we should probably read “El Shaddai,” along with a few Hebrew mss, the Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, and Syriac) as the one who provides abundant blessings, including “blessings of the breast and womb” (49:25). (The direct association of the name with שָׁדַיִם [shadayim, “breasts”] suggests the name might mean “the one of the breast” [i.e., the one who gives fertility], but the juxtaposition is probably better explained as wordplay. Note the wordplay involving the name and the root שָׁדַד [shadad, “destroy”] here in Isa 13:6 and in Joel 1:15.) Outside Genesis the name Shaddai (minus El, “God”) is normally used when God is viewed as the sovereign king who blesses/protects or curses/brings judgment. The name appears in the introduction to two of Balaam’s oracles (Num 24:4, 16) of blessing upon Israel. Naomi employs the name when accusing the Lord of treating her bitterly by taking the lives of her husband and sons (Ruth 1:20-21). In Ps 68:14; Isa 13:6; and Joel 1:15 Shaddai judges his enemies through warfare, while Ps 91:1 depicts him as the protector of his people. (In Ezek 1:24 and 10:5 the sound of the cherubs’ wings is compared to Shaddai’s powerful voice. The reference may be to the mighty divine warrior’s battle cry which accompanies his angry judgment.) Last but not least, the name occurs 31 times in the Book of Job. Job and his “friends” assume that Shaddai is the sovereign king of the world (11:7; 37:23a) who is the source of life (33:4b) and is responsible for maintaining justice (8:3; 34:10-12; 37:23b). He provides abundant blessings, including children (22:17-18; 29:4-6), but can also discipline, punish, and destroy (5:17; 6:4; 21:20; 23:16). It is not surprising to see the name so often in this book, where the theme of God’s justice is primary and even called into question (24:1; 27:2). The most likely proposal is that the name means “God, the one of the mountain” (an Akkadian cognate means “mountain,” to which Heb. שַׁד [shad, “breast”] is probably related). For a discussion of proposed derivations see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 70-71. The name may originally depict God as the sovereign judge who, in Canaanite style, rules from a sacred mountain. Isa 14:13 and Ezek 28:14, 16 associate such a mountain with God, while Ps 48:2 refers to Zion as “Zaphon,” the Canaanite Olympus from which the high god El ruled. (In Isa 14 the Canaanite god El may be in view. Note that Isaiah pictures pagan kings as taunting the king of Babylon, suggesting that pagan mythology may provide the background for the language and imagery.)

[13:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “drop”; KJV “be faint”; ASV “be feeble”; NAB “fall helpless.”

[13:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “melts” (so NAB).

[13:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their faces are faces of flames.” Their faces are flushed with fear and embarrassment.

[13:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”

[13:9]  ¹² tn Heb “[with] cruelty, and fury, and rage of anger.” Three synonyms for “anger” are piled up at the end of the line to emphasize the extraordinary degree of divine anger that will be exhibited in this judgment.

[13:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “making desolate.”

[13:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “land” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT).

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “earth.” Elsewhere the expression “four corners of the earth” figuratively refers to the whole earth (Isa 11:12).

[7:3]  ¹⁶ tn Or “punish” (cf. BDB 1047 s.v. שָׁפַט 3.c).

[7:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “ways.”

[7:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will place on you.”

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:4]  ²⁰ tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[7:4]  ²¹ tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”

[7:4]  ²² tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”

[7:5]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term often refers to moral evil (see Ezek 6:10; 14:22), but in many contexts it refers to calamity or disaster, sometimes as punishment for evil behavior.

[7:5]  ²⁴ tc So most Hebrew mss; many Hebrew mss read “disaster after disaster” (cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[7:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ²⁷ tc With different vowels the verb rendered “it has awakened” would be the noun “the end,” as in “the end is upon you.” The verb would represent a phonetic wordplay. The noun by virtue of repetition would continue to reinforce the idea of the end. Whether verb or noun, this is the only instance to occur with this preposition.

[7:6]  ²⁸ tc For this entire verse, the LXX has only “the end is come.”

[7:6]  tn In each of the three cases of the verb translated with forms of “to come,” the form may either be a participle (“comes/is coming”) or a perfect (“has come”). Either form would indicate that the end is soon to arrive. This last form appears also to be feminine, although “end” is masculine. This shift may be looking ahead to the next verse, whose first noun (“Doom”) is feminine.

[7:7]  ²⁹ sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.

[7:7]  ³⁰ tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”

[7:8]  ³¹ tn The expression “to pour out rage” also occurs in Ezek 9:8; 14:19; 20:8, 13, 21; 22:31; 30:15; 36:18.

[7:9]  ³² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:9]  ³³ tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”

[7:9]  ³⁴ tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.

[7:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the violence.”

[7:11]  ³⁶ tc The LXX reads “he will crush the wicked rod without confusion or haste.”

[7:11]  tn The verb has been supplied for the Hebrew text to clarify the sense.

[7:11]  ³⁷ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.

[7:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.

[12:23]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the days draw near and the word of every vision (draws near).”

[1:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “The great day of the Lord.” The words “of judgment” are supplied in the translation here and later in this verse for clarity. See the note on the expression “day of judgment” in v. 7.

[1:14]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the sound of the day of the Lord, bitter [is] one crying out there, a warrior.” The present translation does four things: (1) It takes מַר (mar, “bitter”) with what precedes (contrary to the accentuation of the MT). (2) It understands the participle צָרַח (tsarakh, “cry out in battle”) as verbal with “warrior” as its subject. (3) It takes שָׁם (sham, “there”) in a temporal sense, meaning “then, at that time.” (4) It understands “warrior” as collective.

[1:15]  ⁴² tn Heb “a day of wrath.” The word “God’s” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:16]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ 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]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:17]  ⁴⁶ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

[1:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “walk.”

[1:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

[1:17]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.

[1:18]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “land” (cf. NEB). This same word also occurs at the end of the present verse.

[1:18]  ⁵¹ tn Or “passion”; traditionally, “jealousy.”

[1:18]  ⁵² tn Or “for.”

[1:18]  ⁵³ tn Heb “complete destruction, even terror, he will make.”

[1:18]  ⁵⁴ tn It is not certain where the Lord’s words end and the prophet’s words begin. It is possible that Zephaniah begins speaking in the middle of v. 17 or at the beginning of v. 18 (note the third person pronouns referring to the Lord).

[19:41]  ⁵⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[19:41]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “he.”

[19:41]  ⁵⁷ sn When Jesus approached and saw the city. This is the last travel note in Luke’s account (the so-called Jerusalem journey), as Jesus approached and saw the city before entering it.

[19:42]  ⁵⁸ sn On this day. They had missed the time of Messiah’s coming; see v. 44.

[19:42]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “the things toward peace.” This expression seems to mean “the things that would ‘lead to,’ ‘bring about,’ or ‘make for’ peace.”

[19:42]  ⁶⁰ sn But now they are hidden from your eyes. This becomes an oracle of doom in the classic OT sense; see Luke 13:31-35; 11:49-51; Jer 9:2; 13:7; 14:7. They are now blind and under judgment (Jer 15:5; Ps 122:6).

[19:43]  ⁶¹ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ⁶² sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ⁶³ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  sn The singular pronoun you refers to the city of Jerusalem personified.

[19:44]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ⁶⁵ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.

[19:44]  sn You did not recognize the time of your visitation refers to the time God came to visit them. They had missed the Messiah; see Luke 1:68-79.

[5:9]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:9]  ⁶⁹ sn The term gates is used metaphorically here. The physical referent would be the entrances to the city, but the author uses the term to emphasize the imminence of the judge’s approach.

[6:17]  ⁷⁰ tc Most mss (A Ï bo) change the pronoun “their” to “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou) in order to bring the text in line with the mention of the one seated on the throne in the immediately preceding verse, and to remove the ambiguity about whose wrath is in view here. The reading αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”) is well supported by א C 1611 1854 2053 2329 2344 pc latt sy. On both internal and external grounds, it should be regarded as original.

[6:17]  ⁷¹ tn The translation “to withstand (it)” for ἵστημι (Jisthmi) is based on the imagery of holding one’s ground in a military campaign or an attack (BDAG 482 s.v. B.4).