Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 5:20
[Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
20. An emphatic repetition of the thought of Amo 5:18, after the illustration of Amo 5:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall not the Day of the Lord be darkness? – He had described that Day as a day of inevitable destruction, such its mans own conscience and guilty fears anticipate, and then appeals to their own consciences, is it not so, as I have said? Peoples consciences are truer than their intellect. However, they may employ the subtlety of their intellect to dull their conscience, they feel, in their heart of hearts, that there is a Judge, that guilt is punished, that they are guilty. The soul is a witness to its own deathlessness, its own accountableness, its own punishableness . Intellect carries the question out of itself into the region of surmising and disputings. Conscience is compelled to receive it back into its own court, and to give the sentence, which it would fain withhold. Like the god of the pagan fable, who changed himself into all sorts of forms, but when he was still held fast, gave at the last, the true answer, conscience shrinks back, twists, writhes, evades, turns away, but, in the end, it will answer truly, when it must. The prophet then, turns quick round upon the conscience, and says, tell me, for you know.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
All these things considered, ye secure, profane, and atheistical scoffers, speak yourselves, will not that day be as dark as I have described, and as little to your comfort?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
[Shall] not the day of the Lord [be] darkness, and not light?…. The design of such a question is strongly to affirm, that, in this day of the Lord spoken of, there should be nothing but misery and distress, and no prosperity and happiness, at least to the wicked Israelites, or the unbelieving Jews:
even very dark, and no brightness in it? signifying that there should be no deliverance, nor the least glimmering view or hope of it; that the calamity should be so very great, and the destruction so entire, that there should be no mixture of mercy, nor the least appearance of relief.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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You have no reason,” he says, “to hope for any light from the day of Jehovah.” Why? “For Jehovah will not come, except when armed; for, as ye conduct yourselves in a hostile manner towards him, he must necessarily take vengeance. He will, therefore, bring with him no light, except it may be to fulminate against you: but his appearance will be dreadful, even darkness and thick darkness; and then, when he ceases to pursue you in one way, he will assail you in another; and, when foreign enemies spare you, God will find means by which he may destroy you in your own land without the agency of men; for ye have already found what the sterility of the land is, and what pestilence is: the Lord then has all such modes of vengeance in his own hand. Think not, therefore, that there will be any alleviation to you, were the world to change a hundred times, and were the condition of the country wholly different.”
But the Prophet did not intend here to drive all those indiscriminately into despair, who were guilty of grievous offenses, but his design was to shake off from hypocrites their self-flatteries, that by such proofs they might be led to know that God would be ever like himself. If, then, they wished to return into favor with him, he shows that a change was needful: when they put off their perverse conduct, God would be instantly ready to give them pardon; but, if they proceeded in their vices and obstinate wickedness, and always continued in that hardness, in which they had hitherto indulged, he declares, that the day of Jehovah would be ever to them dark and gloomy, and that, though the Lord does not always use the same kind of rod, he yet has means innumerable, by which he can destroy a perverse nation, such as the Israelites then were.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) Darkness.In the form of an interrogative, the condemnation contained in Amo. 5:18 is emphatically reasserted. The term rendered very dark is that used to denote the gross Egyptian darkness that might be felt (Exo. 10:22), the awful gloom, such as fell on Jerusalem at the Crucifixion, which is always accompanied by the sense of confusion, terror, and intolerable suspense. (Comp. the graphic metaphorical language of Isa. 5:30.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:20 [Shall] not the day of the LORD [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
Ver. 20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, &c. ] q.d. How say ye now; when thus beset with mischief on all hands, such as ye can neither avoid nor abide, must ye not needs subscribe to the truth of what I said, Amo 5:18 , and do here again repeat (that you may the better observe it) with greater emphasis and earnestness? you shall not have the least glimmering of comfort, ease, direction, or good counsel. To what end, then, should you desire this dreadful day of the Lord? Are you in haste to be undone?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Shall not. ? Figure of speech Erotesis (App-6), for emphasis
and no brightness. Note the Figures of speech Pleonasm and Erotesis (App-6). Some codices omit “and”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
darkness: Job 3:4-6, Job 10:21, Job 10:22, Isa 13:10, Eze 34:12, Nah 1:8, Mat 22:13, Jud 1:13, Rev 16:10
Reciprocal: Jdg 4:17 – fled Job 11:20 – they shall not escape Job 15:23 – the day Joe 2:11 – the day Mat 24:29 – shall the Mar 13:24 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 5:20. This verse repeats the thought of the preceding ones.(Amo 5:19)
Amo 5:21
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rhetorically Amos stated that the coming day of the Lord would be a day characterized by darkness and gloom (despair) rather than by bright light (joy; cf. Joe 2:1-2; Joe 2:10-11; Zep 1:14-15).
A brighter day of the Lord was also coming (cf. Amo 9:11-15; Jer 30:8-11; Hos 2:16-23; Mic 4:6-7; Zep 3:11-20), but first a dark one would appear. The Israelites wanted to hasten the good day of the Lord, but they wanted to forget about the bad one. This prophecy found fulfillment when the Assyrians overran Israel and took most of the people into exile in 722 B.C. The later Tribulation period for Israel, which will precede her millennial day of blessing, will be similar to what Amos predicted here, but I think it was not what God was foretelling here.