Joel 2:31 (DBY)

Passage

The sun shall be changed to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come.

Nearby Context

Joel 2:29 Yea, even upon the bondmen and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.

Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

Joel 2:31 The sun shall be changed to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come.

Joel 2:32 And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as Jehovah hath said, and for the residue whom Jehovah shall call.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "darkness", "shall", "changed", "moon", "blood", "before", "great", and "terrible". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "darkness" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 30's "And I will shew wonders in the..." into verse 32's "And it shall be that whosoever shall...", so "darkness" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Joel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "darkness" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.