Passage

Amos 5.18

Book: Amos · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

16. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! Alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing. 17. And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.

18. Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:16-20, ASV)

WEB

16. Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing. 17. In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh.

18. “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. 20. Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:16-20, WEB)

KJV

16. Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 17. And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:16-20, KJV)

YLT

16. Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, the Lord, In all broad places [is] lamentation, And in all out-places they say, 'Alas, alas,' And called the husbandman to mourning, And to lamentation the skilful of wailing. 17. And in all vineyards [is] lamentation, For I pass into thy midst, said Jehovah.

18. Ho, ye who are desiring the day of Jehovah, Why [is] this to you, the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light,

As [when] one fleeth from the face of the lion, And the bear hath met him, And he hath come in to the house, And hath leant his hand on the wall, And the serpent hath bitten him. 20. Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, Even thick darkness that hath no brightness? (Amos 5:16-20, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Amos of Tekoa, a herdsman (noqed, sheep breeder) and tender of sycamore figs from Judah, speaking the word of the LORD.
Audience: The northern kingdom of Israel, addressed at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II.
Location: Delivered in the northern kingdom, principally at Bethel, the royal sanctuary and state temple (Amos 7:13).
Time period: c. 760-750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Amos is generally reckoned the earliest of the writing prophets.

Theological reading

The day they longed for. "Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah!" Israel looked forward to the day of the LORD as the day he would defeat their enemies. Amos turns the hope into a threat: "It is darkness, and not light."

Why it reverses. The whole chapter has shown Israel standing among the guilty: justice turned to wormwood (5:7), bribes and oppression at the gate (5:10-12). If the day of the LORD is a day of judgment, it falls on Israel as well. Later prophets describe the day in the same terms, "a day of darkness and gloominess" (Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15).

An early reading. Chrysostom, expounding Paul's warning that destruction comes when people say "Peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3), reads the woe as aimed at scoffers: "he does not speak simply of persons who desire it, but of those who desire it because they disbelieve it" (Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Thessalonians (Homily IX), Schaff NPNF1 vol 13). On that reading, the desire Amos condemns is the careless confidence of people who do not believe the judgment is real.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Quoted in

Passages:

Amos 3.2

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.