Amos 5:18
Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.
Open Amos 5:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Væ desiderantibus diem Domini ! ad quid eam vobis ? Dies Domini ista, tenebræ, et non lux.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐαὶ οἱ ἐπιθυμοῦντες τὴν ἡμέραν Κυρίου· ἵνα τί αὕτη ὑμῖν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου; καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν σκότος καὶ οὐ φῶς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- ה֥וֹי הַמִּתְאַוִּ֖ים אֶת י֣וֹם יְהוָ֑ה לָמָּה זֶּ֥ה לָכֶ֛ם י֥וֹם יְהוָ֖ה הוּא חֹ֥שֶׁךְ וְלֹא אֽוֹר
Haydock's commentary
The day. Some imprudently laughed at the prophets, Isaias v. 19., and Jeremias xvii. 15. Others wished for the coming of the Lord, not reflecting that he would punish their guilt. (Calmet)
Thus many, through impatience, desire to die. We must rather repent, and leave our lives at God's disposal. (St. Jerome)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew III. 7
For having said that “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,” he added, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees,”by all means making his speech alarming. For as he from his way of life had much freedom of speech, so they needed his severe rebuke, having been left barrennow for a long time. For “why do I say” (such are his words) “that ye are on the point of falling away from your relationship to the patriarch and of seeing others, even those that are of stones, brought in to your pre-eminence? Nay, not to this point only will your penalty reach, but your punishment will proceed further. “For now,” saith he, “the axe is laid unto the root of the trees.” There is nothing more terrible than this turn of his discourse. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 5:1,2
Here he has glanced at something which he has also said in his second Epistle. For since they indeed were in affliction, but they that warred on them at ease and in luxury, and then while he comforted them in their present sufferings by this mention of the Resurrection, the others insulted them with arguments taken from their forefathers, and said, When will it happen? which the Prophets also said, “Woe unto them that say, Let him make speed, let God hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it!” ( Isa. v. 19 .); and again “Woe unto them that desire the day of the Lord.” ( Amos v. …
St Basil The Hexæmeron, “The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.”
“ And the evening and the morning were the first day .” Evening is then the boundary common to day and night; and in the same way morning constitutes the approach of night to day. It was to give day the privileges of seniority that Scripture put the end of the first day before that of the first night, because night follows day: for, before the creation of light, the world was not in night, but in darkness. It is the opposite of day which was called night, and it did not receive its name until after day. Thus were created the evening and the morning. Scripture means the space of a day and a night, and afterwards no more says day and night, but calls them both under the name of the more important: a custom which you will find throughout Scripture. Everywhere the measure of time is counted by days, without mention of nights. “The days of our years,” says the Psalmist. …