Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ¹  a day of dreadful darkness, ² 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ³ 

like blackness ⁴  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ⁵  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 4:32-35

The Uniqueness of Israel’s God

4:32 Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ⁷  on the earth, and ask ⁸  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it. 4:33 Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it? 4:34 Or has God ⁹  ever before tried to deliver ¹⁰  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ¹¹  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ¹²  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 4:35 You have been taught that the Lord alone is God – there is no other besides him.

Isaiah 7:17

7:17 The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s family a time ¹³  unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!” ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 30:7

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ¹⁵ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ¹⁶ 

Daniel 12:1

12:1 “At that time Michael,

the great prince who watches over your people, ¹⁷ 

will arise. ¹⁸ 

There will be a time of distress

unlike any other from the nation’s beginning ¹⁹ 

up to that time.

But at that time your own people,

all those whose names are ²⁰  found written in the book,

will escape.

Matthew 24:21

24:21 For then there will be great suffering ²¹  unlike anything that has happened ²²  from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen.

[2:2]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

[2:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”

[4:32]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term אָדָם (’adam) may refer either to Adam or, more likely, to “man” in the sense of the human race (“mankind,” “humankind”). The idea here seems more universal in scope than reference to Adam alone would suggest.

[4:32]  ⁸ tn The verb is not present in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification. The challenge has both temporal and geographical dimensions. The people are challenged to (1) inquire about the entire scope of past history and (2) conduct their investigation on a worldwide scale.

[4:34]  ⁹ tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).

[4:34]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”

[4:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).

[4:34]  ¹² tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “days” (so KJV, NAB); NASB, NRSV “such days.”

[7:17]  ¹⁴ sn Initially the prophecy appears to be a message of salvation. Immanuel seems to have a positive ring to it, sour milk and honey elsewhere symbolize prosperity and blessing (see Deut 32:13-14; Job 20:17), verse 16 announces the defeat of Judah’s enemies, and verse 17a could be taken as predicting a return to the glorious days of David and Solomon. However, the message turns sour in verses 17b-25. God will be with his people in judgment, as well as salvation. The curds and honey will be signs of deprivation, not prosperity, the relief announced in verse 16 will be short-lived, and the new era will be characterized by unprecedented humiliation, not a return to glory. Because of Ahaz’s refusal to trust the Lord, potential blessing would be transformed into a curse, just as Isaiah turns an apparent prophecy of salvation into a message of judgment. Because the words “the king of Assyria” are rather awkwardly tacked on to the end of the sentence, some regard them as a later addition. However, the very awkwardness facilitates the prophet’s rhetorical strategy here, as he suddenly turns what sounds like a positive message into a judgment speech. Actually, “the king of Assyria,” stands in apposition to the earlier object “days,” and specifies who the main character of these coming “days” will be.

[30:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

[30:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

[12:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “stands over the sons of your people.”

[12:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will stand up.”

[12:1]  ¹⁹ tn Or “from the beginning of a nation.”

[12:1]  ²⁰ tn The words “whose names are” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[24:21]  ²¹ tn Traditionally, “great tribulation.”

[24:21]  ²² sn Suffering unlike anything that has happened. Some refer this event to the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. While the events of a.d. 70 may reflect somewhat the comments Jesus makes here, the reference to the scope and severity of this judgment strongly suggest that much more is in view. Most likely Jesus is referring to the great end-time judgment on Jerusalem in the great tribulation.