DAY OF THE LORD (
By: Emil G. Hirsch
An essential factor in the prophetic doctrine of divine
judgment at the end of time (see Eschatology), generally, though not always,
involving both punishment and blessing. It is identical with "that
day" (: Isa. xvii. 7, xxx. 23, xxxviii. 5; Hos. ii. 18; Micah ii. 4, v.
10; Zech. ix. 16; xiv. 4, 6, 9), "those days" (Joel iii.1),
"that time" (: Jer. xxxi. 1, R. V.; xxx. 25, Hebr.; Zeph. iii. 19,
20), or simply "the day" (Ezek. vii. 10), or "the time." On
the supposition that Genesis reflects the nation's earliest hopes—denied by the
critical schools—the promises given to the Patriarchs of ultimate blessings
upon Israel and, through Israel, upon mankind (Gen. xii. 2, 3; xvii. 2, 4, 5,
6; xxvi. 3, 4; xxvii. 29; xxxii. 12), may be taken for the primitive germ of
the idea. The original conception was probably that of the day on which Yhwh manifests
Himself as the wielder of thunder and lightning, as the devastator who shatters
the powers opposing Him; and this was in historical times transformed into the
day when He would smite Israel's foes (compare Isa. xiii. 6; Ezek. xxx. 3). But
in the eighth century B.C. Amos is found sounding a decided warning against his
people's expectation that simply because they are Yhwh's people the "day
of Yhwh" will bring requitement on Israel's enemies alone. It will be an
occasion of visiting wrong-doing both within and without Israel. "I will
cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear
day" (Amos v. 18; viii. 9).
In Amos the punitive aspect of "the day" is
dominant; ix. 8-15 is held to be exilic by most modern commentators; but see
Driver, "Joel and Amos," pp. 119-123 (Amos iii. 2, v. 18, viii. 9).
The day is "darkness and not light" (v. 18). Amos'contemporary Hosea
does not use the phrase, but he expresses the idea of a judgment to come along
lines identical with those found in Amos (Hosea x. 8, xiii. 16). Isaiah, too,
strikes in the main the note of gloom. Israel and Judah both feel the weight of
divine wrath provoked by their unrighteousness (Isa. i. 10-17, 21-26; ii.
19-21; iii. 1-15; v. 8-24). But this will show Yhwh's power. He will be exalted
(ii. 11-17). The judgment cometh suddenly with earthquakes and thunder and
tempest and whirlwind and the flame of a devouring fire (xxix. 6). Still
through this terrible process, like the purifying of silver, the nation will be
restored on a basis of righteousness (i. 24-26). Isaiah's horizon is national.
The foreign nations, too, will be judged, but only in relation to Israel. The
kingdom is Israel's alone (this is on the theory that the Messianic passages,
except Isa. i. 24-26, are of a later age; see Cheyne, Duhm, Hackmann, G. A.
Smith, and others; Hastings, "Dict. Bible," ii. 488). Micah, too,
emphasizes the doom of Jerusalem as the feature of the endtime (iii. 12).
In the latter half of the seventh century B.C. (Nahum,
Habakkuk, and Zephaniah) the idea that "that day" will see the
punishment of wicked Assyria in behalf of righteous Israel finds expression.
This view thus contains a new ethical element; it is not, as formerly in the
popular conception (see above), the natural relation of Israel and Yhwh that
brings wrath upon Israel's enemies, but it is because Israel is righteous ( and
Assyria, or non-Israel, is wicked (; Hab. i. 4, 13). Judgment and consequent
destruction fall on the "Gentiles," not on Israel. There is here the
first intimation of a world-judgment in connection with "the day," an
aspect that becomes thenceforth more and more prominently emphasized.
Zephaniah, indeed, puts it strongly, but with the significant addition that a
righteous remnant of Israel will survive the day ("judgment" on
Jerusalem—i. 8-13; on Philistia, Ethiopia, Assyria—ii. 1-6; "on the
nations"—iii. 8; on the earth's inhabitants—i. 2, 3). The day of Yhwh is a
day of trouble, distress, and desolation; of supernatural terrors and of
darkness and thick darkness (i. 14-18). The assembled nations are destroyed by
Yhwh's, anger (iii. 8). The enemies of Israel who are to be punished are, in
Zephaniah's conception, no longer definite peoples, as they were for Isaiah
(see above); they are the generally, and
the instruments of God's punitive power are a mysterious if not mythical
people—the "invited guests"of Yhwh (, i. 7).
During the Exile.
In the Exile the conception underwent further
amplifications. Judgment is held to deal with individuals. As a result a righteous
congregation (not nation) was to emerge to form the nucleus of the Messianic
kingdom. This kingdom was to have its prelude in the day of Yhwh, meting out
individual retribution (Jer. i. 11-16; xxiii. 7, 8; xxiv. 5, 6; xxv. 15-24,
27-33; xxxvi. 6-10), which will lead to change of heart (xxiv. 7; compare
xxxii. 39); a new heart and a new covenant (xxxi. 33, 34). The blessings of the
new conditions will be participated in by the nations (iii. 17; xii. 14, 15;
xvi. 19). Only the impenitent will be destroyed (xii. 16, 17).
Ezekiel's vision enlarges on details. A universal uprising
of the nations under GOG is one of the incidents (compare Ezek. xxxviii.,
xxxix.; Zeph. i. 7). With this the climax in the development of the idea of the
day of Yhwh seems to have been reached. Henceforth the thought of judgment (=
day of Yhwh) disappears almost entirely, and is succeeded by a universal
Messianic kingdom, preceded not by a day of wrath, but by the missionary zeal
of righteous Israel and the spontaneous conversion of the nations (see
Messiah).
After the Exile.
Of the post-exilic prophets only Malachi lays great stress
on the element of judgment. The Temple is central to his religious
construction. To it Yhwh will come suddenly, but a messenger will prepare for
His coming for judgment. Before that "great and dreadful day" Elijah
will "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers" (Mal. iv. 23, 24 [A. V. 5, 6]). This judgment
(in Hag. ii. 21-23, it is destructive for the nations) is only on Israel (ib.
ii. 17; Mal. iii. 3, 5, 13 et seq.). The day "burns as a furnace"; it
destroys "all the proud and the workers of iniquity."
In apocalyptic writings, however, the day ofYhwh reappears.
Joel (400 B.C.) reverts to it. The valley of Jehoshaphat is the place of
judgment. The nations are gathered, judged, and annihilated (Joel iii. 1, 2,
12). Yhwh is Israel's defender (iii. 2). Israel is justified, but it is Israel
purified (ii. 25-27, 28, 29; iii. 16, 17). Before "the day" all
Israel is filled with the spirit of God (ii. 28, 29). Nature announces its
approach (ii. 30, 31). As in Joel, so in all apocalyptic visions the idea is
prominent that the day of Yhwh (= of judgment) marks evil's culmination, but
that Israel and the righteous will be supernaturally helped in their greatest
need. Faintly foreshadowed in Ezekiel, this thought is reproduced in various
ways, until in Daniel (vii. 9, 11, 12, 21, 22; xii. 1) it finds typical
expression, and is a dominant factor in Jewish apocalyptic writings and
Talmudic eschatology (see Apocalyptic Literature, s.v. Book of Enoch; Daniel;
Day of Judgment; Eschatology).
Regarding the name "Day of the Lord" given by
Christianity to Sunday, see Didascalia; Resurrection, from the Dead; Sunday.
Regarding the Talmudic day of God in the sense of "millennium," See
Millennium.
Bibliography:
The commentaries to the prophetical passages quoted: R. H.
Charles, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, London, 1899;
Smith, The Day of the Lord, in American Journal of Theology,
1900. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5009-day-of-the-lord
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