Amos 5:20
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it?
Webster's Revision
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
World English Bible
Won't the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?
English Revised Version (ERV)
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
Barnes's Amos 5:20 Bible Commentary
Shall not the Day of the Lord be darkness? - He had described that Day as a day of inevitable destruction, such its man's own conscience and guilty fears anticipate, and then appeals to their own consciences, "is it not so, as I have said?" People's 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."