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.
Ver. 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord] The day of his visitation when he will go through us, as you prophets would make believe. Where is the promise of his coming? Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it, Isa 5:19 Jeremiah 17:15. Let him increase his army and come down, Judges 9:29. Such jeering and daring spirits there are still abroad. But do they provoke the Lord to anger? are they stronger than he? The great and terrible day of the Lord will come time enough to their cost; they need not accelerate it. Can they stand to his trial? or abide the thunder of his power? Job 26:14 .
To what end is it for you] When God shall answer you, as he did a far better man, out of the whirlwind, and say, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man," Job 38:2,3. Where, then, shall the ungodly and the wicked appear? 1 Peter 4:18; what hills will they call upon to fall on them, when the elements shall fall upon them like scalding lead or burning bell metal; and yet all this be but the beginning of their sorrows! "Now therefore be not ye mockers, lest your bands be made strong," Isaiah 28:22. God can easily hamper you if he once take you in hand.
The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light] No interchange of light; "an evil, an only evil," without mixture of mercy, Ezekiel 7:5, a black and dismal day of one mischief upon another, in a continued series. "Affliction shall not rise up the second time," Nahum 1:9, but ye shall totally and finally be destroyed; wrath shall come upon you to the utmost, 1 Thessalonians 2:16. This is illustrated in the next verse by an apt similitude.