the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Green's Literal Translation
Joel 2:2
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It will be a dark, gloomy day. It will be a dark and cloudy day. At sunrise you will see the army spread over the mountains. It will be a great and powerful army. There has never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again.
A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.
It will be a dark, gloomy day, cloudy and black. Like the light at sunrise, a great and powerful army will spread over the mountains. There has never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again.
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!
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread on the mountains; a great and a strong people; there has not ever been the like, neither shall [there] be anymore after them, even to the years of many generations.
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, [even] to the years of many generations.
A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and of thick [dark] mist, Like the dawn spread over the mountains; There is a [pagan, hostile] people numerous and mighty, The like of which has never been before Nor will be again afterward Even for years of many generations.
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 before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, A great and strong people; There has never been the like, Neither will there be any more after them, Even to the years of many generations.
for the dai of derknessis and of myist is niy, the dai of cloude and of whirlewynde. As the morewtid spred abrood on hillis, a myche puple and strong. Noon was lijk it fro the bigynnyng, and after it schal not be, til in to yeeris of generacioun and of generacioun.
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong people appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
It will be dark and gloomy with storm clouds overhead. Troops will cover the mountains like thunderclouds. No army this powerful has ever been gathered before or will ever be again.
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to generation.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick fog; a great and mighty horde is spreading like blackness over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, nor will there ever be again, not even after the years of many generations.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and gross darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains;—a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, to the years of generations and generations.
A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as blackness spread upon the mountains; a great people and a mighty, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
A day of darkenesse and of gloominesse, a day of clouds and of thicke darkenesse, as the morning spread vpon the mountaines: a great people and a strong, there hath not beene euer the like, neither shall be any more after it, euen to the yeres of many generations.
It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears. Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again.
It will be a day of darkness, a day of clouds and much darkness. A large and powerful army will come like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there will never be anything like it again for all time to come.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.
A day of darkenesse, and of blacknesse, a day of cloudes, & obscuritie, as the morning spred vpon the mountaines, so is there a great people, and a mighty: there was none like it from the beginning, neither shalbe any more after it, vnto the yeeres of many generations.
And the day of darkness and gloom is near, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, like the morning spread upon the mountains; it shall come upon a great and strong people; there has not been ever the like from of old, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
A day of obscurity and deep gloom, a day of cloud, and thick darkness, as dusk, spread over the mountains, - a people, many and bold, like whom, hath not been from age-past times, and, after whom, shall not be again unto the years of generation after generation.
A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it, even to the years of generation and generation.
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.
A darke and glomie day, a cloudie and blacke day: as the mornyng is spread ouer the mountaynes [so is this] populus & strong people, like it there was none from the beginning, nor shalbe herafter for euermore.
for a day of darkness and gloominess is near, a day of cloud and mist: a numerous and strong people shall be spread upon the mountains as the morning; there has not been from the beginning one like it, and after it there shall not be again even to the years of many generations.
It will be a dark and gloomy day, a black and cloudy day. The great army of locusts advances like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.
a day of darkness and gloom,a day of clouds and total darkness,like the dawn spreading over the mountains;a great and strong people appears,such as never existed in ages pastand never will againin all the generations to come.
A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, A great and strong people; There has never been the like, Neither will there be any more after them, Even to the years of many generations.
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness, like the dawn spreads on the mountains, a great and strong army! There has been nothing like it from old, and after it nothing will be again for generations to come.
A day of darkness and thick darkness, A day of cloud and thick darkness, As darkness spread on the mountains, A people numerous and mighty, Like it there hath not been from of old, And after it there is not again -- till the years of generation and generation.
a darcke daye, a gloomynge daye, a cloudy daye, yee & a stormy daye, like as the mornynge spredeth out vpo the hilles: Namely, a great & mightie people: soch as haue not bene sens ye begynnynge, nether shal be after them for euermore.
A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.
A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.
A day of darkness and thick darkness,A day of clouds and dense gloom.As the dawn is spread over the mountains,So there is a numerous and mighty people;There has never been anything like it,Nor will there be again after itFor the years from generation to generation.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
A day of darkness: "The quantity of these insects," says a French author,"is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers; the whole earth is covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army in secret. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears; trees and plants, stripped of their leaves and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacles or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured by them." Joel 2:10, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:14, Joel 3:15, Exodus 20:21, Psalms 97:2, Isaiah 5:30, Isaiah 8:22, Jeremiah 13:16, Amos 5:18-20, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:15, Hebrews 12:18, Jude 1:13
as: Amos 4:13
a great: Joel 2:5, Joel 2:11, Joel 2:25, Joel 1:6
there: Joel 1:2, Joel 1:3, Exodus 10:6, Exodus 10:14, Daniel 12:1, Mark 13:19
many generations: Heb. generation and generation, Deuteronomy 32:7, Psalms 10:6,*marg.
Reciprocal: Exodus 10:4 - locusts Exodus 10:22 - thick darkness Deuteronomy 28:39 - for the worms Job 3:4 - darkness Job 3:5 - let a cloud Job 15:23 - the day Job 22:11 - darkness Psalms 18:11 - thick Psalms 105:28 - sent Ecclesiastes 11:8 - yet Isaiah 9:19 - is the land Isaiah 45:7 - create darkness Jeremiah 51:27 - cause Lamentations 2:1 - covered Ezekiel 30:3 - a cloudy Ezekiel 32:7 - I will cover the heaven Ezekiel 38:9 - like Daniel 9:12 - for under Joel 1:15 - Alas Joel 2:20 - remove Zephaniah 1:7 - for the day Matthew 24:21 - General Revelation 9:2 - and the sun
Cross-References
And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day.
And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden to the east; and He put the man whom He had formed there.
The name of the first was Pishon; it is the one surrounding all the land of Havilah where gold is ;
You shall do your work six days, and on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of your slave-girl and your alien may be refreshed.
It is a sign forever between Me and the sons of Israel; for in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
and the seventh day shall be a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your ox, nor yourass, nor any of your livestock, nor yourstranger that is within your gates; so that your male slave and your female slave may rest like yourself.
If you turn your foot away because of the sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the sabbath a delight, to the holiness of Jehovah, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from findingyour own pleasure or speaking your word;
But Jesus answered them, My Father works until now, and I work.
For He has spoken somewhere about the seventh day this way, "And God rested from all His works in the seventh day." Gen. 2:2
Gill's Notes on the Bible
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,.... Alluding to the gloomy and thick darkness caused by the locusts, which sometimes come in prodigious numbers, like thick clouds, and darken the air; so the land of Egypt was darkened by them,
Exodus 10:15; historians and travellers relate, as Bochart f has shown, that these creatures will fly like a cloud, and darken the heavens at noonday, cover the sun, and hinder the rays of it from touching the earth; though all these phrases may be expressive of great afflictions and calamities, which are often in Scripture signified by darkness, as prosperity is by light; see Isaiah 8:22;
as the morning spread upon the mountains; as the morning light, when it first appears, diffuses itself in a moment throughout the earth, and is first seen on the tops of the mountains g; so these locusts, and this calamity threatened, should suddenly and at once come, and be spread over the whole land; and which could no more be resisted than the morning light. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, in connection with the next clause, "as the morning spread upon the mountains, a people much and mighty"; but the accents will not admit of it; though it may seem a little improper that the same thing should be as a dark day, and: the morning light; wherefore Cocceius understands the whole of the day of Christ, which was light to many nations, and darkness to the wicked Jews:
a great people and a strong; numerous and mighty, many in number, mighty in strength; so the locusts are represented as a nation and people for might and multitude, Joel 1:6; an emblem of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, who were a large and powerful people:
there hath not been ever the like, neither shall any more after it,
[even] to the years of many generations; that is, in the land of Judea; otherwise there might have been the like before in other places, as in Egypt, and since in other countries. Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi, account for it thus; that it was never known, before or since, that four kinds of locusts came together; as for the plague of Egypt, there was but one sort of them, they say; but it is best to understand it of the like not having been in the same country: and such a numerous and powerful army as that of the Chaldeans had not been in Judea, and made such havoc and desolation as that did; nor would any hereafter, for many generations, even until the Romans came and took away their place and nation.
f Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 479. g "Postera vix summos spargebat lumine montes Orta dies----", Virgil. Aeneid. 12.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
A day of darkness and of gloominess - o: “A day full of miseries; wherefore he accumulates so many names of terrors. There was inner darkness in the heart, and the darkness of tribulation without. They hid themselves in dark places. There was the cloud between God and them; so that they were not protected nor heard by Him, of which Jeremiah saith, “Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayers should not pass through” Lamentations 3:44. There was the whirlwind of tempest within and without, taking away all rest, tranquility and peace. Whence Jeremiah hath, “A whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth injury, it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed it” Jeremiah 23:19. “The Day of the Lord too shall come as a thief in the night” 1 Thessalonians 5:2. “Clouds and darkness are round about Him” Psalms 97:2.
A day of clouds and of thick darkness - The locusts are but the faint shadow of the coming evils, yet as the first harbingers of God’s successive judgments, the imagery, even in tills picture is probably taken from them. At least there is nothing in which writers, of every character, are so agreed, as in speaking of locusts as clouds darkening the sun. : “These creatures do not come in legions, but in whole clouds, 5 or 6 leagues in length and 2 or 3 in breadth. All the air is full and darkened when they fly. Though the sun shine ever so bright, it is no brighter than when most clouded.” : “In Senegal we have seen a vast multitude of locusts shadowing the air, for they come almost every three years, and darken the sky.” : “About 8 o’clock there arose above us a thick cloud, which darkened the air, depriving us of the rays of the sun. Every one was astonished at so sudden a change in the air, which is so seldom clouded at this season; but we soon saw that it was owing to a cloud of locusts. It was about 20 or 30 toises from the ground (120-180 feet) and covered several leagues of the country, when it discharged a shower of locusts, who fed there while they rested, and then resumed their flight. This cloud was brought by a pretty strong wind, it was all the morning passing the neighborhood, and the same wind, it was thought, precipitated it in the sea.” : “They take off from the place the light of day, and a sort of eclipse is formed.” : “In the middle of April their numbers were so vastly increased, that in the heat of the day they formed themselves into large bodies, appeared like a succession of clouds and darkened the sun.” : “On looking up we perceived an immense cloud, here and there semi-transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun.”
The most unimaginative writers have said the same ; “When they first appear, a thick dark cloud is seen very high in the air, which, as it passes, obscures the sun. Their swarms were so astonishing in all the steppes over which we passed in this part of our journey (the Crimea,) that the whole face of nature might have been described as concealed by a living veil.” : “When these clouds of locusts take their flight to surmount some obstacle, or traverse more rapidly a desert soil, one may say, to the letter, that the heaven is darkened by them.”
As the morning spread upon the mountains - Some have thought this too to allude to the appearance which the inhabitants of Abyssinia too well knew, as preceding the coming of the locusts (see the note at Joel 2:6). A sombre yellow light is cast on the ground, from the reflection, it was thought, of their yellow wings. But that appearance itself seems to be unique to that country, or perhaps to certain flights of locusts. The image naturally describes, the suddenness, universality of the darkness, when people looked for light. As the mountain-tops first catch the gladdening rays of the sun, ere yet it riseth on the plains, and the light spreads from height to height, until the whole earth is arrayed in light, so wide and universal shall the outspreading be, but it shall be of darkness, not of light; the light itself shall be turned into darkness.
A great people and a strong - The imagery throughout these verses is taken from the flight and inroad of locusts. The allegory is so complete, that the prophet compares them to those things which are, in part, intended under them, warriors, horses and instruments of war; and this, the more, because neither locusts, nor armies are exclusively intended. The object of the allegory is to describe the order and course of the divine judgments; how they are terrific, irresistible, universal, overwhelming, penetrating everywhere, overspreading all things, excluded by nothing. The locusts are the more striking symbol of this, through their minuteness and their number. They are little miniatures of a wellordered army, unhindered by what would be physical obstacles to larger creatures, moving in order inimitable even by man, and, from their number, desolating to the uttermost. “What more countless or mightier than the locusts,” asks Jerome, who had seen their inroads, “which human industry cannot resist?” “It is a thing invincible,” says Cyril, “their invasion is altogether irresistible, and suffices utterly to destroy all in the fields.” Yet each of these creatures is small, so that they would be powerless and contemptible, except in the Hands of Him, who brings them in numbers which can be wielded only by the Creator. Wonderful image of the judgments of God, who marshals and combines in one, causes each unavailing in itself but working together the full completion of His inscrutable Will.
There hath not been ever the like - The courses of sin and of punishment are ever recommencing anew in some part of the world and of the Church. The whole order of each, sin and punishment, will culminate once only, in the Day of Judgment. Then only will these words have their complete fulfillment. The Day of Judgment alone is that Day of terror and of woe, such as never has been before, and shall never be again. For there will be no new day or time of terror. Eternal punishment will only be the continuation of the sentence adjudged then. But, in time and in the course of God’s Providential government, the sins of each soul or people or Church draw down visitations, which are God’s final judgments there. Such to the Jewish people, before the captivity, was the destruction of the temple, the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and that captivity itself. The Jewish polity was never again restored as before.
Such, to the new polity after the captivity, was the destruction by the Romans. Eighteen hundred years have seen nothing like it. The Vandals and then the Muslims swept over the Churches of North Africa, each destructive in its own way. twelve centuries have witnessed one unbroken desolation of the Church in Africa. In Constantinople, and Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, Churches of the Redeemer became the mosques of the false prophet. Centuries have flowed by, “yet we see not our signs, neither is there any among us, that knoweth how long” Psalms 74:9. Wealthy, busy, restless, intellectual, degraded, London, sender forth of missionaries, but, save in China, the largest pagan city in the world; converter of the isles of the sea, but thyself unconverted; fullest of riches and of misery, of civilization and of savage life, of refinements and debasement; heart, whose pulses are felt in every continent, but thyself diseased and feeble, wilt thou, in this thy day, anticipate by thy conversion the Day of the Lord, or will It come upon thee, “as hath never been the like, nor shall be, for the years of many generations?” Shalt thou win thy lost ones to Christ, or be thyself the birthplace or abode of antichrist? “O Lord God, Thou knowest.”
Yet the words have fulfillments short of the end. Even of successive chastisements upon the same people, each may have some aggravation unique to itself, so that of each, in turn, it may be said, in that respect, that no former visitation had been like it, none afterward should resemble it. Thus the Chaldaeans were chief in fierceness, Antiochus Epiphanes in his madness against God, the Romans in the completeness of the desolation. The fourth beast which Daniel saw “was dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it” Daniel 7:7-19. The persecutions of the Roman Emperors were in extent and cruelty far beyond any before them. They shall be as nothing, in comparison to the deceivableness and oppression of antichrist. The prophet, however, does not say that there should be absolutely none like it, but only not “for the years of many genertions.” The words “unto generation and generation” elsewhere mean “forever;” here the word “years” may limit them to length of time. God, after some signal visitation, leaves a soul or a people to the silent workings of His grace or of His Providence. The marked interpositions of His Providence, are like His extraordinary miracles, rare; else, like the ordinary miracles of His daily operations, they would cease to be interpositions.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Joel 2:2. A day of darkness, c. — The depredations of the locusts are described from the second to the eleventh verse, and their destruction in the twentieth. Dr. Shaw, who saw locusts in Barbary in 1724 and 1725, thus describes them: -
"I never observed the mantes, bald locusts, to be gregarious. But the locusts, properly so called, which are so frequently mentioned by sacred as well as profane writers, are sometimes so beyond expression. Those which I saw in 1724 and 1725 were much bigger than our common grasshopper and had brown spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was toward the latter end of March, the wind having been for some time south. In the middle of April their numbers were so vastly increased that, in the heat of the day, they formed themselves into large and numerous swarms; flew in the air like a succession of clouds; and, as the prophet Joel expresses it, (Joel 2:10) they darkened the sun. When the wind blew briskly, so that these swarms were crowded by others, or thrown one upon another, we had a lively idea of that comparison of the psalmist, (Psalms 109:23,) of being 'tossed up and down as the locust.' In the month of May, when the ovaries of those insects were ripe and turgid, each of these swarms began gradually to disappear; and retired into the Mettijiah, and other adjacent plains, where they deposited their eggs. These were no sooner hatched in June, than each of these broods collected itself into a compact body of a furlong or more in square; and, marching immediately forward in the direction of the sea, they let nothing escape them; eating up every thing that was green and juicy, not only the lesser kinds of vegetables, but the vine likewise; the fig tree, the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, Joel 1:12; in doing which they kept their ranks like men of war; climbing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way. Nay, they entered into our very houses and bedchambers, like so many thieves. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they fined with water; or else they heaped up in them heath, stubble, and such like combustible matter, which were severally set on fire upon the approach of the locusts. But this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were quickly filled up, and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms succeeding one another; while the front was regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close, that a retreat was altogether impossible. A day or two after one of these broods was in motion, others were already hatched to march and glean after them; gnawing off the very bark, and the young branches, of such trees as had before escaped with the loss only of their fruit and foliage. So justly have they been compared by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:3) to a great army; who further observes, that 'the land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness.'
"Having lived near a month in this manner (like a μυριοστομον ξιφος, or sword with ten thousand edges, to which they have been compared,) upon the ruin and destruction of every vegetable substance which came in their way, they arrived at their full growth, and threw old their nympha state by casting their outward skin. To prepare themselves for this change, they clung by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of a stone; and immediately, by using an undulating motion, their heads would first break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation was performed in seven or eight minutes, after which they lay for a short time in a torpid and seemingly languishing condition; but as soon ad the sun and air had hardened their wings, by drying up the moisture which remained upon them, after casting their sloughs, they reassumed their former voracity, with an addition both of strength and agility. Yet they did not continue long in this state before they were entirely dispersed, as their parents were before, after they had laid their eggs; and as the direction of the marches and flights of them both was always to the northward, and not having strength, as they have sometimes had, to reach the opposite shores of Italy, France, or Spain, it is probable they perished in the sea, a grave which, according to these people, they have in common with other winged creatures." - Travels, 4to. edition pp. 187, 188.
A day of darkness — They sometimes obscure the sun. And Thuanus observes of an immense crowd, that "they darkened the sun at mid-day."
As the morning spread upon the mountains — They appeared suddenly: as the sun, in rising behind the mountains, shoots his rays over them. Adanson, in his voyage to Senegal, says: "Suddenly there came over our heads a thick cloud which darkened the air, and deprived us or the rays of the sun. We soon found that it was owing to a cloud of locusts." Some clouds of them are said to have darkened the sun for a mile, and others for the space of twelve miles! See on Joel 2:10.
