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The word rendered "clear" is in the margin "precious," and is in the plural. The word here rendered "dark" is in the margin "thickness."

I. A period of UNMITIGATED DISTRESS. This period of unmitigated calamity primarily refers, we have no doubt, to those long centuries of oppression, cruelty, mockery, and scorn, to which the Jewish people have been subjected ever since the destruction of Jerusalem. In the predictions of Joel (Joel 2:31; Joel 3:15) referring to the destruction of the Holy City and breaking up of the Jewish commonwealth, the period is referred to as a period when the sun shall be "turned into darkness," and the "moon into blood." Three remarks are suggested concerning this dark day.

1. Such a day is the hard destiny of some men. Their life is a day of darkness. It is so with some nations. The history of some nations and tribes is little less than a history of crushing oppression, bloody revolutions and untold cruelties and sufferings.

2. Such a day is deserved by most men. All men are sinners and deserve this blackness and darkness forever. The very tendency of sin, in fact, is to quench every light in the firmament of the soul.

II. Here is a period of UNINTERRUPTED JOY.

1. Such a day as this is destined to dawn on every good man. Heaven is a scene of light. No clouds of ignorance or suffering obstruct the rays, nor will the sun ever go down. "The Lord God is the light thereof."

2. Such a day as this is destined to dawn on the world in the future.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

WEB: It will happen in that day, that there will not be light, cold, or frost.