Isaiah 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 

Isaiah 8:22

8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ⁵  distress and darkness, gloom ⁶  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ⁷ 

Isaiah 24:11-12

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; ⁸ 

all joy turns to sorrow; ⁹ 

celebrations disappear from the earth. ¹⁰ 

24:12 The city is left in ruins; ¹¹ 

the gate is reduced to rubble. ¹² 

Isaiah 60:2

60:2 For, look, darkness covers the earth

and deep darkness covers ¹³  the nations,

but the Lord shines on you;

his splendor ¹⁴  appears over you.

Jeremiah 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ¹⁵ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ¹⁶ 

Do it before you stumble ¹⁷  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ¹⁸ 

Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ¹⁹ 

Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ²⁰  a day of dreadful darkness, ²¹ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ²² 

like blackness ²³  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ²⁴  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ²⁵ 

Amos 5:18

The Lord Demands Justice

5:18 Woe ²⁶  to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

Matthew 27:45

Jesus’ Death

27:45 Now from noon until three, ²⁷  darkness came over all the land. ²⁸ 

Acts 2:20

2:20 The sun will be changed to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the great and glorious ²⁹  day of the Lord comes.

[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.”

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ⁶ tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.

[24:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”

[24:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.

[24:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”

[24:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”

[24:12]  ¹² tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”

[60:2]  ¹³ tn The verb “covers” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[60:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions); TEV “the brightness of his presence.”

[13:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the Lord your God.” For this nuance of the word “glory” (כָּבוֹד, kavod), see BDB 459 s.v. כָּבוֹד 6.b and compare the usage in Mal 1:6 and Josh 7:19.

[13:16]  ¹⁶ tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.

[13:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.

[13:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.

[2:2]  ²⁰ tn The phrase “It will be” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style.

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “darkness and gloom.” These two terms probably form a hendiadys here. This picture recalls the imagery of the supernatural darkness in Egypt during the judgments of the exodus (Exod 10:22). These terms are also frequently used as figures (metonymy of association) for calamity and divine judgment (Isa 8:22; 59:9; Jer 23:12; Zeph 1:15). Darkness is often a figure (metonymy of association) for death, dread, distress and judgment (BDB 365 s.v. חשֶׁךְ 3).

[2:2]  ²² tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ²³ tc The present translation here follows the proposed reading שְׁחֹר (shÿkhor, “blackness”) rather than the MT שַׁחַר (shakhar, “morning”). The change affects only the vocalization; the Hebrew consonants remain unchanged. Here the context calls for a word describing darkness. The idea of morning or dawn speaks instead of approaching light, which does not seem to fit here. The other words in the verse (e.g., “darkness,” “gloominess,” “cloud,” “heavy overcast”) all emphasize the negative aspects of the matter at hand and lead the reader to expect a word like “blackness” rather than “dawn.” However, NIrV paraphrases the MT nicely: “A huge army of locusts is coming. They will spread across the mountains like the sun when it rises.”

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “A huge and powerful people”; KJV, ASV “a great people and a strong.” Many interpreters understand Joel 2 to describe an invasion of human armies, either in past history (e.g., the Babylonian invasion of Palestine in the sixth century b.c.) or in an eschatological setting. More probably, however, the language of this chapter referring to “people” and “armies” is a hypocatastic description of the locusts of chapter one. Cf. TEV “The great army of locusts advances like darkness.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[5:18]  ²⁶ tn The term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”) was used when mourning the dead (see the note on the word “dead” in 5:16). The prophet here either engages in role playing and mourns the death of the nation in advance or sarcastically taunts those who hold to this misplaced belief.

[27:45]  ²⁷ tn Grk “from the sixth hour to the ninth hour.”

[27:45]  ²⁸ sn This imagery has parallels to the Day of the Lord: Joel 2:10; Amos 8:9; Zeph 1:15.

[2:20]  ²⁹ tn Or “and wonderful.”