Amos 5:18
in Amos 5Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.
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.
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This verse in Amos 5
Commentary
10 notes on this verseWo 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.
This site's exposition
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord
on Amos 5:18-20
Israel expected the day of the Lord as a day of vindication against her enemies, and Amos overturns the expectation flatly, to what end is it for you, the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. The bench reads the three pictures of verse 19, the lion escaped only to meet a bear, the bear escaped only to meet a snake in one's own house, as a deliberate ladder of relief that keeps collapsing, no refuge proving safe. This is the earliest text in Scripture to name the day of the Lord as a technical phrase, and the darkness Amos gives it here becomes the note Joel, Zephaniah and the rest of the prophets carry forward.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Perhaps we will understand what has been written if we deal with a Gospel text spoken by the Savior, which expresses it in this way: "Work while it is day. The night comes when no one can work." He has named here as this age the day—but of necessity I have added the word here, for I know that in other passages other meanings are revealed—so he has called this age the day, but the darkness and the night the consummation because of punishments. For "why do you desire the Day of the Lord? And it is darkness and not light," says the prophet Amos. If you can envision after the consummation of the world what the gloom is, a gloom that pursues nearly all of the race of humans who are punished for sins. The atmosphere will become dark at that time, and no longer can anyone ever give glory to God, since the Word has given orders to the righteous saying, go, "my people, enter into your rooms, shut the door, hide yourself for a little season, until the force of my anger has passed away."
Since there were some buoyed up by audacity and temerity who resisted the prophetic oracles, raging against them, calling the divine pronouncements false and demanding the fulfillment of the prophecies, the Lord declares these people lamentable for longing to see darkness instead of light. Those …
(Verse 18-20.) Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for it? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? Woe to those who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Or, rather, it is spoken to those who speak jestingly of that day of the Lord which the prophet spoke so seriously of; they desired it, that is, they challenged it; they said, Let him do his worst; let him make speed, and hasten his work, Isa. v. 19 . Where is the promise of his coming?
That desire - Scoffingly, not believing any such day would come. To what end - What do you think to get by it? Is darkness - All adversity, black and doleful.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Woe unto you that desire - for yourselves. The Day of the Lord - There were “mockers in those days” 2Pe 3:3-4; Jud 1:18, as there are now, and as there shall be in the last. And as the “scoffers in the last days” 2Pe 3:3-4; Jud 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” Isa 5:19. Jeremiah complained; “they say unto me, where is the word of the Lord? let it come now!” Jer 17:15. And God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? The vision that he seeth is for many days, and he prophesieth of the times far off” Eze 12:22, Eze 12:27. “They would shew their courage and strength of mind, by longing for the Day of the Lord, which the prophets foretold, in which God was to shew forth His power on the disobedient.” Lap.: “Let it come, what these prophets threaten until they are hoarse, let it come, let it come. It is ever held out to us, and never comes. We do not believe that it will come at all, or if it do come, it will not be so dreadful after all; it will go as it came.” It may be, however, that they who scoffed at Amos, cloked their unbelief under the form of desiring the good days, which God had promised by Joel afterward. Jerome: “There is not,” they would say, “so much of evil in the captivity, as there is of good in what the Lord has promised afterward.” Amos meets the hypocrisy or the scoff, by the appeal to their consciences, “to what end is it to you?” They had nothing in common with it or with God. Whatever it had of good, was not for such as them. […]
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ה֥וֹי | ho | woe to! | H1945 → | |
| הַמִּתְאַוִּ֖ים | hamitavim | those [who] desire | H183 → | |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| י֣וֹם | yom | [the] day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יְהוָ֑ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| לָמָּה־ | lamah- | <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| זֶּ֥ה | zeh | this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| לָכֶ֛ם | lakhem | to you | ||
| י֥וֹם | yom | [the] day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| הוּא־ | hu'- | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| חֹ֥שֶׁךְ | choshekh | [will be] darkness | H2822 → | |
| וְלֹא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֽוֹר׃ | ʾor | light | H216 → | 121 times |
ה֥וֹיwoe to!
hoH1945 →
הַמִּתְאַוִּ֖יםthose [who] desire
hamitavimH183 →
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
י֣וֹם[the] day of
yomH3117 →2304 times
יְהוָ֑הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
לָמָּה־<to> why?
lamah-H4100 →752 times
זֶּ֥הthis
zehH2088 →1180 times
לָכֶ֛םto you
lakhem
י֥וֹם[the] day of
yomH3117 →2304 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
הוּא־it
hu'-H1931 →1879 times
חֹ֥שֶׁךְ[will be] darkness
choshekhH2822 →
וְלֹא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
אֽוֹר׃light
ʾorH216 →121 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 30:7How awful that day will be! None will be like it! It is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved out of it.
it leads to
- Malachi 4:1
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 12:1
“At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning…
- Zechariah 14:1–2
Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence.
- Malachi 4:1
Through
Malachi 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of…
it leads to
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8
in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
- 2 Peter 3:7
And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
- Malachi 3:2
But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8
Through
Joel 2:31The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
it leads to
- Revelation 6:12–13
And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red,
- Matthew 24:29
Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will…
- Revelation 6:12–13
Where this verse is studied
By subject
Judgment35 verses
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Studies3
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About Amos
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12 and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON AMOS 5:18–20.