Bible Strands
Joel 3:15
The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Israel concerning the imminent Day of the LORD, placing the declaration between the summons to the valley of decision and the description of God roaring from Zion.
The words — The text records קָדָ֑רוּ (ka.Da.ru), meaning they have become dark, and אָסְפ֥וּ (a.se.Fu), meaning they have withdrawn, describing the sun, moon, and stars losing their light.
The thread — This celestial darkening motif appears in Joel 2:10 and Matthew 24:29 as markers of cosmic disturbance preceding divine judgment.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition of God’s imminent intervention and the cessation of created order, leaving the reader to confront the reality of the approaching Day of the LORD.
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
The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Cross-references
- Joel 2:10 Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.
- Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
- 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 be shaken.’
- Luke 21:25 There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.
- 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.
- Revelation 6:12 And I watched as the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red,