Joel 2:10

10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

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 marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.

9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.

10 The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

11 The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his host is exceedingly great; he that executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it?

12 "Yet even now," says the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;