Amós 5:18

18 ¡Ay de los que desean el día del SEÑOR! ¿Para qué queréis este día del SEÑOR? Será de tinieblas, y no de luz

Amós 5:18 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 5:18

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord
Either the day of Christ's coming in the flesh, as Cocceius interprets it; and which was desired by the people of Israel, not on account of spiritual and eternal salvation, but that they might be delivered by him from outward troubles and enemies, and enjoy temporal felicity; they had a notion of him as a temporal Saviour and Redeemer, in whose days they should possess much outward happiness, and therefore desired his coming; see ( Malachi 3:1 Malachi 3:2 ) ; or else the day of the Lord's judgments upon them, spoken of by the prophet, and which they were threatened with, but did not believe it would ever come; and therefore in a scoffing jeering manner, expressed their desire of it, to show their disbelief of it, and that they were in no pain or fear about it, like those in ( Isaiah 5:19 ) ; to what end [is] it for you?
why do you desire it? what benefit do you expect to get by it? the day of the Lord [is] darkness, and not light;
it will bring on affliction, calamities, miseries, and distress, which are often in Scripture expressed by "darkness", and not prosperity and happiness, which are sometimes signified by "light"; see ( Isaiah 5:30 ) ( 8:22 ) ( Esther 8:16 ) ; and even the day of the coming of Christ were to the unbelieving Jews darkness, and not light; they were blinded in it, and given up to judicial blindness and darkness; they hating and rejecting the light of Christ, and his Gospel, and which issued in great calamities, in the utter ruin and destruction of that people, ( John 3:19 John 3:20 ) ( 9:39 ) .

Amós 5:18 In-Context

16 Por tanto, así dijo el SEÑOR, el Dios de los ejércitos, el Señor: En todas las plazas habrá llanto, y en todas las calles dirán: ¡Ay! ¡ay! Y al labrador llamarán a lloro, y a endecha a los que endechar supieren

17 Y en todas las viñas habrá llanto; porque pasaré por medio de ti, dijo el SEÑOR

18 ¡Ay de los que desean el día del SEÑOR! ¿Para qué queréis este día del SEÑOR? Será de tinieblas, y no de luz

19 como el que huye de delante del león, y se topa con el oso; o si entrare en casa y arrimare su mano a la pared, y le muerda la culebra

20 ¿No será el día del SEÑOR tinieblas, y no luz; oscuridad, que no tiene resplandor