Reference: Day of the Lord
Hastings
The day in which Jehovah was expected to punish sinful Hebrews and the enemies of Israel, and to establish at least the righteous remnant of His people in political supremacy. The Hebrews believed implicitly that their God Jehovah was certain to defeat all rivals. Before Amos this view had not reached a definite eschatology, and probably involved only a general expectation of the triumph of Israel and Israel's God. With Amos, however, the conception of punishment became less ethnic and more moral. The sins of Israel itself deserved punishment, and Amos declared that the luxury of the nation, with all its economic oppression, had grown hateful to Jehovah, and unless abandoned would bring fearful punishment (Am 2:6-8; 3:9-15; 5:10-13; 6:4-8). The righteousness of Jehovah demanded that the sins of His people as well as those of the heathen should be punished. After Amos the thought of an awful day of Divine punishment was extended from Israel to a world of sinners. According to Zephaniah (Am 1:2-15; 2:4-15), punishment was now to come upon all wicked persons, both Jews and Gentiles, because of wrong. So, too, the unknown prophet who wrote under the name of Malachi. Ezekiel (Eze 30:2 f., Eze 34:12; 39:8 f.), however, reverted to the same national thought of a 'day of battle,' in which Jehovah would conquer all Israel's foes; and to some extent this same national idea is represented by Joel (Joe 2:18-27). With the later prophets there is to be seen an element of reconstruction as well as punishment in Jehovah's action. Sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, are to be punished, but a pious remnant is to be saved, the beginnings of a new Israel.
It is clear that this conception of a great Day of Jehovah underlies much of the Messianic expectation of apocryphal literature. The establishment of a remnant of a pious Israel was the germ of the hope of the Messianic kingdom; and the Day of Jehovah itself became the Day of Judgment, which figures so largely in both Jewish and Christian Messianism. It fact, it is not too much to say that the eschatology of Judaism is really a development of the implications of the prophetic teaching as to the Day of Jehovah.
Shailer Mathews.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Wail ye, Wo to the day!
According to the seeking of the shepherd of his flock in the day of his being in the midst of his sheep being scattered.; so will I search out my sheep and deliver them from all places where they were scattered there in the day of cloud and darkness.
Behold, it came, and it was, says the Lord Jehovah; this the day which I spike.
And Jehovah will be jealous for his land, and he will pity. for his people. And Jehovah will answer and say to his people, Behold me sending to you the grain and the new wine, and the new oil; and ye were satisfied with it: and I will no more give you a reproach among the nations. read more. And the northern I will remove far off from you, and I thrust him into a land of dryness and desolation, with his face to the east sea, and his end to the last sea; and his stink came up. and his stench shall come up, for he magnified to do. Thou shalt not fear, O land; rejoice and be glad, for Jehovah magnified to do. Ye shall not fear, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert sprang forth, for the tree bore its fruit, the fig tree and the vine gave their strength. Ye sons of Zion rejoice and be glad in Jehovah your God; for he gave to you the early rain for justice, and he will bring down to you the rain, the early and latter rain in the first. And the threshing-floors were filled with grain, and the wine-vats overflowed with new wine and new oil. And I requited to you the years which the common locust ate, the feeder, and the devourer, and the creeping locust, my great army which I sent among you. And eating, ye ate and were satisfied, and ye praised the name of Jehovah your God who did wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed forever. And ye knew that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am Jehovah your God, and none else: and my people shall not be ashamed forever.
And he will say, Jehovah will cry out from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice; and the habitations of the shepherds mourned, and the head of Carmel was dried up. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn back for their threshing Gilead with threshing-sledges of iron. read more. And I sent fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of the son of Hadad. And I broke the bar of Damascus, and I cut off the inhabitants of the valleys of vanity, and him taking hold of the rod of the house of delight: and the people of Aram were carried away captive to a walled place said Jehovah. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their carrying away captive the whole captivity to deliver over to Edom And I sent a fire upon the walls of Gaza, and it shall devour its palaces. And I cut off the inhabitants of Ashdod, and him holding the rod from Ashkelon; and I turned back my hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the rovers perished, said the Lord Jehovah. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their delivering over the whole captivity to Edom, and they remembered not the covenant of their brethren: And I sent a fire upon the walls of Tyre and it shall consume her palaces. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn it back: for his pursuing his brother with the sword, and he destroyed his compassions, and his anger will rend forever, and his wrath was observed perpetually. And I sent a fire upon Teman and it devoured the palaces of Bozrah. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn it back: for their cleaving asunder those conceiving of Gilead to increase their bound. And I kindled a fire in the walls of Rabbah, and it devoured her palaces with a loud noise in the day of war, with a storm in the day of whirlwind: And their king went into captivity, he and his chiefs together, said Jehovah.
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn it back from him, for their rejecting the instructions of Jehovah, and they watched not his laws, and their lies caused them to err which their fathers went after them. And I sent a fire upon Judah, and it devoured the palaces of Jerusalem. read more. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their selling the just one for silver and the needy for shoes;
Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their selling the just one for silver and the needy for shoes; Panting for the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and they will turn away the way of the humble: and a man and his father will go to the same young girl to profane my holy name:
Panting for the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and they will turn away the way of the humble: and a man and his father will go to the same young girl to profane my holy name: And upon garments taken in pledge they will turn by every altar, and they will drink the wine of the amerced in the house of their God.
And upon garments taken in pledge they will turn by every altar, and they will drink the wine of the amerced in the house of their God. And I destroyed the Amorite from their face, whom his height as the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; and I will destroy his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. read more. And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I will cause you to come into the desert forty years to possess the land of the Amorite. And I will raise up from your sons for prophets, and from your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even this, ye sons of Israel? says Jehovah. And ye will give the Nazarites wine to drink; and ye commanded to the prophets, saying, Ye shall not prophesy. Behold, I am pressed under you as a wagon will be pressed being filled with the sheaf to it And flight perished from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his power, and the mighty shall not save his soul. And he holding the bow shall not stand; and the swift with his feet shall not escape: and he riding the horse shall not save his soul.
Cause to be heard upon the palaces in Ashdod, and upon the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Be ye gathered together upon the mountains of Shomeron, and see the great tumults in the midst of her, and the oppressed in the midst of her. And they knew not to do the straight, says Jehovah, storing up violence and oppression in their palaces. read more. For this, thus said the Lord Jehovah: An adversary and round about the land; and he brought down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces were plundered. Thus said Jehovah: As the shepherd will deliver from the mouth of the lion two legs, and part of an ear, thus shall the sons of Israel be delivered dwelling in Shomeron in the extremity of a tribe, or in Damascus under a roof. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord Jehovah, God of armies. For in the day of my reviewing the transgressions of Israel upon him, and reviewed upon the altars of the house of God: and the horns of the altar were broken, and they fell to the earth. And I struck the house of autumn with the house of summer; and the houses of ivory perished, and the great houses were taken away, says Jehovah.
They hated him setting right in the gate, and they will abhor the perfect word. For this, because of your treading upon the poor one, and ye will take away the liftings up of wheat from him: ye built houses of hewn stone, and ye shall not dwell in them; ye planted vineyards of desire and ye shall not drink their wine. read more. For I knew your many transgressions, and your strong sins: pressing upon the just, taking a ransom, and they turned away the needy in the gate For this the prudent one shall be silent in that time, for it is an evil time.
Lying upon beds of ivory, and stretching out upon their couches, and eating the lambs from the flock, and the calves from the midst of the stall. Prating upon the mouth of the lyre, as David they invented to them instruments of music; read more. Drinking wine in vases, and they will anoint with the chief of ointments: and they were not grieved for the breaking of Joseph. For this now shall they be carried away captive with the head of those carried away captive, and the shouting a those poured forth was removed. The Lord Jehovah sware by his soul, says Jehovah God of armies: I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hated his palaces: and I delivered up the city and its fulness.
Morish
This cannot be separated from Messiah's day. It is often characterised by judgement: "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness . . . . the day of the Lord is great and very terrible." Joe 2:2,11,31; Mal 4:1. "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night; for when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1Th 5:2-3. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2Pe 3:10. This scene is followed by 'THE DAY OF GOD' in 2Pe 3:12, which ushers in the new heavens and the new earth.
It is important to keep the 'day' quite distinct from the coming of the Lord to fetch His saints; for many have misapplied the term, and it has been constantly asserted that the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians was written to show the saints that it was wrong to be expecting the return of the Lord; whereas the fact is they thought the day of the Lord had come (though the First Epistle keeps the two things quite distinct: compare 1Th 4:13-18 with 1Th 5:1-4), and this could not come until Antichrist was revealed. There will be judgements before the millennium, and there will be judgements after the millennium, so that we may regard the Day of the Lord as extending through the millennium: it will be 'the Lord's' day in contrast to 'man's' day.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
A day of darkness and of thick darkness; a day of cloud and gloom as the morning spread upon the mountains: great and strong people; the like to him was not from forever, and after him there shall not be added even to the years of generation and generation.
And Jehovah gave his voice before the face of his strength: for exceedingly great his camp, and strong he doing his word: for great the day of Jehovah, and exceedingly terrible; and who shall endure it?
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and the terrible day of Jehovah.
For behold, the day coming, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all doing injustice were straw: and the day coming burnt them, said Jehovah of armies, that it shall not leave to them root and branch.
And I wish you not to be ignorant, brethren, of them having been asleep, that ye should not grieve, as also the rest, they hating no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose up, so also God by Jesus Christ will bring with him them having slept. read more. For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we the living being left at the arrival of the Lord shall not get beforehand with them having slept. For the Lord himself in the word of command, in the voice of the archangel, shall descend from heaven: and the dead in Christ shall be raised first: Then we the living being left shall be snatched up together with them in the clouds, to the meeting of the Lord in the air: and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort ye one another with these words.
And of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need to write to you. For ye yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord, as a thief in the night, so comes.
For ye yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord, as a thief in the night, so comes. For when they say, Peace and security; then sudden ruin is upon them, as anguish in her with child; and they may not escape.
For when they say, Peace and security; then sudden ruin is upon them, as anguish in her with child; and they may not escape. And ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day as a thief overtake you.
And the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a loud noise, and the elements, suffering from excessive heat, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned down.
Expecting and seeking earnestly the presence of the day of God, during which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements going to be burned are melted away?