Ezekiel 7:7

7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ¹  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ² 

Ezekiel 7:12

7:12 The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ³  comes against their whole crowd.

Psalms 37:13

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

for he knows that their day is coming. ⁵ 

Obadiah 1:15

The Coming Day of the Lord

1:15 “For the day of the Lord ⁶  is approaching ⁷  for all the nations! ⁸ 

Just as you have done, so it will be done to you.

You will get exactly what your deeds deserve. ⁹ 

Joel 2:1

The Locusts’ Devastation

2:1 Blow the trumpet ¹⁰  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, ¹¹  it is near! ¹² 

Zephaniah 1:7

1:7 Be silent before the Lord God, ¹³ 

for the Lord’s day of judgment ¹⁴  is almost here. ¹⁵ 

The Lord has prepared a sacrificial meal; ¹⁶ 

he has ritually purified ¹⁷  his guests.

Zephaniah 1:14

1:14 The Lord’s great day of judgment ¹⁸  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. ¹⁹ 

Matthew 24:33

24:33 So also you, when you see all these things, know ²⁰  that he is near, right at the door.

Philippians 4:5

4:5 Let everyone see your gentleness. ²¹  The Lord is near!

James 5:9

5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, ²²  so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates! ²³ 

Revelation 6:17

6:17 because the great day of their ²⁴  wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” ²⁵ 

[7:7]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[7:12]  ³ tn Heb “wrath.” Context clarifies that God’s wrath is in view.

[37:13]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[1:15]  ⁷ sn The term יוֹם (yom, “day”) is repeated ten times in vv. 11-14 referring to the time period when Judah/Jerusalem suffered calamity which Edom exploited for its own sinful gain. In each of those cases יוֹם was qualified by a following genitive to describe Judah’s plight, e.g., “in the day of your brother’s calamity” (v. 12). Here it appears again but now followed by the divine name to describe the time of God’s judgment against Edom for its crimes against humanity: “the day of the Lord.” In the present translation, the expression בְּיוֹם (bÿyom; literally, “In the day of”) was rendered “When…” in vv. 11-14. However, here it is translated more literally because the expression “the day of the Lord” is a well-known technical expression for a time of divine intervention in judgment. While this expression sometimes refers to the final eschatological day of God’s judgment, it may also refer occasionally to historical acts of judgment.

[1:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “near” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “is coming soon.”

[1:15]  ⁹ sn God’s judgment would not be confined to Edom. Edom would certainly be punished in just measure for its wrongdoing, but “the day of the Lord” would also encompass judgment of the nations (v. 15).

[1:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your deed will return on your own head.” Verses 15 and 16 provide an example of ironic reversal, whereby the tables are turned and poetic justice is served. This is a motif that is common in prophetic oracles against foreign nations.

[2:1]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for.”

[2:1]  ¹¹ 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.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Lord Lord.” The phrase אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה (adonai yÿhvih) is customarily rendered by Jewish tradition as “Lord God.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “the day of the Lord.”

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Or “near.”

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a sacrifice.” This same word also occurs in the following verse.

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “consecrated” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:14]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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.

[24:33]  ¹⁵ tn The verb γινώσκετε (ginwskete, “know”) can be parsed as either present indicative or present imperative. In this context the imperative fits better, since the movement is from analogy (trees and seasons) to the future (the signs of the coming of the kingdom) and since the emphasis is on preparation for this event.

[4:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “let your gentleness be seen by all.” The passive voice construction has been converted to active voice in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[5:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:9]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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).