Joel 2:10

10 {Before them} [the] earth quakes; [the] heavens tremble; [the] sun and [the] moon grow dark, and [the] stars {have withheld} their splendor

Joel 2:10 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:10

The earth shall quake before them
The inhabitants of it, because of the desolating judgments they bring with them, and those enemies that are signified by them: the heavens shall tremble;
being obscured by them: the sun and moon shall be dark;
the locusts sometimes come in such large numbers as to intercept the rays of the sun. Pliny ^F20 says they sometimes darken it; and though some thought they did not fly in the night, because of the cold; this he observes is owing to their ignorance, not considering that they pass over wide seas to distant countries; and this will account for it how the moon also may be darkened by them, and the stars, as follows: and the stars shall withdraw their shining;
though all this may be understood in a figurative sense of the great consternation that all sorts of persons should be in at such calamities coming upon the land, either by locusts, or by enemies; as the king, queen, nobles, and the common people of the land, signified by sun, moon, and stars, heaven and earth.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Ibid. (Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.)

Joel 2:10 In-Context

8 They do not jostle {one another}; each goes on its own trail; and through the falling weapons, they are not halted.

9 In the city they rush forth; on the walls they run. Into the houses they climb up; through the windows they enter like [a] thief.

10 {Before them} [the] earth quakes; [the] heavens tremble; [the] sun and [the] moon grow dark, and [the] stars {have withheld} their splendor

11 And Yahweh {utters} his voice before his army, because his encampment [is] very large; strong [is the] one who carries out his decree, for great [is] the day of Yahweh and exceedingly fearful. Who can endure it?

12 "And even now," {declares} Yahweh, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, and wailing."

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "Before the presence of it"
• [b] Literally "gathered"