Bible Strands
Amos 5:20
Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Amos addresses Israel, contrasting their cultural expectation of a triumphant Day of the LORD with the imminent reality of inescapable judgment. The words — חֹשֶׁךְ (chosek) translates to darkness, and אֹר (or) translates to light, framing the verse’s central paradox. The thread — This motif appears in Isaiah 13:10 and Zephaniah 1:15, where celestial darkness signals divine wrath rather than salvation. Why it lands — It demands the reader abandon reliance on religious ritual and recognize that divine judgment operates independently of human expectation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
- Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
- Zephaniah 1:15 That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
- Job 10:21 before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,
- Job 3:4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
- Nahum 1:8 But with an overwhelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh and pursue His enemies into darkness.
- Matthew 22:13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
- Jude 1:13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
- Revelation 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and men began to gnaw their tongues in anguish