EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Amos 5:18
18You want the special day of the Lord to come. But it will be very bad for you! You think that God will punish your enemies on that day. But that day will not bring light to you, it will bring darkness.
Amos 5:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
- New International Version (NIV)Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light,
- New King James Version (NKJV)Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
Context of Amos 5:18
16The Lord, the Lord God Almighty says, ‘All the people will be sad. They will weep and cry loudly in all the streets. They will tell the farmers to weep with them. They will tell the singers to sing sad songs for them. 17In every field and garden, people will be weeping, because I will come to punish them all.’ That is what the Lord says. You want the special day of the Lord to come. But it will be very bad for you! You think that God will punish your enemies on that day. But that day will not bring light to you, it will bring darkness. 19Nobody will escape! It will be like a man who runs away from a lion, but then he meets a bear! When he goes into his house to be safe, he puts his hand on a wall and a snake bites him! 20Know this: The day of the Lord will be dark, not light. It will bring trouble, not joy.
Read all of Amos 5Amos 5:18 word by word
ה֥וֹי הַמִּתְאַוִּ֖ים אֶת־י֣וֹם יְהוָ֑ה לָמָּה־זֶּ֥ה לָכֶ֛ם י֥וֹם יְהוָ֖ה הוּא־חֹ֥שֶׁךְ וְלֹא־אֽוֹר׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Amos 5:18
- Isaiah 5:19People like that laugh at God. They say, ‘The Lord should do something quickly! We want to see what he can do. The holy God of Israel should do what he has decided to do. Then we will really know what that is!’
- Isaiah 28:15You boast, ‘We have made a covenant with death. Yes, we have made an agreement with Sheol. When trouble comes to our city like a deep flood of water, we will be safe. We trust in our lies to keep us safe.’
- Jeremiah 17:15People are asking me questions. They say, ‘Nothing has happened to us yet! When will the Lord's message become true?’
- Ezekiel 12:22‘Son of man, you have this proverb in the land of Israel: “A long time passes and visions never truly happen.”
- Malachi 3:1‘Look! I will send someone to speak my message. He will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord that you are waiting for will quickly return to his temple. The one who brings the message about the covenant will certainly come. He is the one that you really want to see.’ That is what the Lord Almighty says.
- 2 Peter 3:4They will say: ‘Christ promised that he would return to this world. But he has not returned! Our ancestors have already died, but since God made the world in the beginning, nothing has changed.’
- Isaiah 5:30On the day that they attack, the enemy will roar over the people that they catch. They will make a noise like a rough sea. If anyone looks across the land, it will be completely dark because of all the trouble. Clouds will make the light of day become dark.
- Isaiah 9:19The Lord Almighty is very angry. He punishes the land of Israel, like a fire that burns everything. The people are like wood that makes the fire burn well. None of them try to help each other.
- Isaiah 24:11They shout in the streets because they have no wine. Nobody is happy any more, anywhere on the earth.
- Jeremiah 30:7It will be a time of terrible trouble, worse than anything that has happened before. It will be a time of great trouble for Jacob's descendants. But I will rescue them from their trouble.’
- Joel 1:15Be afraid because of that day. Be afraid because the day of the Lord is near. It will be as if the great God would destroy everything.
- Joel 2:1Blow the trumpet in Zion. Tell the people on the Lord's hill that they must watch for trouble. All the people who live in this country will be afraid. They will be afraid because the day of the Lord is coming. It is very near.
- Zephaniah 1:14The time for the great day of the Lord is coming very soon. It will happen quickly. Strong men will weep when they hear the noise of it.
- Malachi 4:1‘The great day when I come to judge people will certainly happen. Punishment will come like the great fire of a hot oven. It will destroy all the proud people who do evil things. It will completely destroy them, like a fire that destroys dry grass. Nothing will remain.’ That is what the Lord Almighty says.
- 2 Peter 3:10The great day of the Lord will suddenly happen. That will surprise people, like when someone comes to rob them. There will be a very loud noise in the sky. The whole sky will go away. Fire will burn the whole universe and it will destroy everything. The earth and everything that people have made will then become clear.
Commentaries on Amos 5:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord - The prophet had often denounced the coming of God's day, that is, of a time of judgment; and the unbelievers had said, "Let his day come, that we may see it." Now the prophet tells them that that day would be to them darkness - calamity, and not light - not prosperity.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18Woe unto you that desire - for yourselves. The Day of the Lord - There were “mockers in those days” 2 Peter 3:3-4; Jude 1:18, as there are now, and as there shall be in the last. And as the “scoffers in the last days” 2 Peter 3:3-4; Jude 1:18 shall say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” so these said, “let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we way see it, and let the council of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it”…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-27Verses 18-27 Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark, all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments of…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 18Amos again challenges the Israelites' mistaken belief about their chosen status (see Amos 3:2). The phrase What will the Day of the LORD be for you indicates despair from a great tragedy. In the Old Testament, the day of the Lord (see Isaiah 13:6, 9) was when God would intervene to fix what was wrong. God's intervention would mean vindication for the righteous and judgment for the wicked. Israel believed that on that day (see also Amos 8:3, 9, 13; 9:11)…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1818. Woe unto you who do not scruple to say in irony, "We desire that the day of the Lord would come," that is, "Woe to you who treat it as if it were a mere dream of the prophets" (Is 5:19; Jr 17:15; Eze 12:22). to what end is it for you!--Amos taking their ironical words in earnest: for God often takes the blasphemer at his own word, in righteous retribution making the scoffer's jest a terrible reality against himself. Ye have but little reason to desire…Read the comment
Topics related to Amos 5:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Amos 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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