What other scriptures describe the "day of the LORD" similarly to Zephaniah 1:15?

Setting the Stage

Zephaniah 1:15 paints the Day of the LORD as “a day of wrath… trouble and distress… destruction and desolation… darkness and gloom… clouds and blackness”. Scripture returns to this sober picture again and again, reinforcing the reality of a coming day when God intervenes decisively in human history.

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Old-Testament Echoes of Zephaniah’s Description

• Isaiah 13:9-10

“Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.”

• Joel 2:1-2

“Blow the trumpet in Zion… for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near — a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness…”

• Joel 2:31

“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.”

• Amos 5:18, 20

“Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD!… The Day of the LORD will be darkness and not light… even gloom with no brightness in it.”

• Ezekiel 30:2-3

“Wail, ‘Alas, the day!’ For the day is near, the Day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.”

• Obadiah 1:15

“For the Day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head.”

• Zechariah 14:1-2

“Behold, a day of the LORD is coming… I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; the city will be captured…”

• Malachi 4:5

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.”

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New-Testament Reinforcements

• Acts 2:20 (quoting Joel)

“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.”

• 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

“…the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and security,’ destruction will come upon them suddenly… and they will not escape.”

• 2 Peter 3:10

“But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.”

• Revelation 6:17

“For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

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Shared Themes That Tie These Passages Together

• Wrath and judgment: righteous anger directed at persistent sin.

• Suddenness and inevitability: it arrives unexpectedly, like a thief.

• Cosmic disturbance: darkness, celestial signs, shaking of heaven and earth.

• Universal scope: nations, creation itself, and every individual are affected.

• Moral accountability: “as you have done, it will be done to you” (Obadiah 1:15).

Each reference amplifies Zephaniah’s warning, urging us to live alert, repentant, and anchored in the salvation God provides through Christ before that great and awesome Day arrives.