Day of the Lord

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated in many English versions as “Day of the Lord” was rendered in Bengali as “Day of Judgement” in order to avoid confusion with the Lord’s day in the sense of Sunday. (Source: David Clark)

In Atatláhuca Mixtec it is translated as “the day when our owner comes back.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

See also day of judgment.

complete verse (Acts 2:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:20:

  • Uma: “The day will be dark, the moon red like blood, before the Day of the Lord arrives, the day that is very big and powerful.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The sun,’ he said, ‘will become dark, and the moon will become red like blood when the great and wonderful day is about to arrive, the day for my judging the human beings.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for me, the Lord, before the famous day of my punishing mankind is arrived to in the future, the sun will become dark and the moon will become red like blood.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “In-the-future indeed (prophetic formula) the sun will get-dark, and the moon, it will turn-reddish like blood. Then will arrive the valuable day that has no equal on-which the Lord -will-come.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then when that important/high day is arriving which is the far-from-ordinary day when God will judge people, the sun/day will become dark. The moon will, in the sight of people, be just like blood.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

    • Morelos Nahuatl: “The sun will no longer give its light. The moon will redden like blood. All that will happen before we enter the day that God has set apart. That day of God will be big and all people will know that of a truth God set that day apart.”
    Teutila Cuicatec: “I am the Lord of all people and before my day comes, on the sun it will become dark, and the moon will become like blood. That will be an awesome and great day.” (Source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

For the Old Testament quotes, see Joel 2:28ff.

complete verse (Joel 2:31)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joel 2:31:

  • Kupsabiny: “The sun will lose its light and the moon be colored (red)
    before the big and fearful day of God will arrive.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Before the great and fearful day of the LORD comes,
    the sun will become dark, and the moon will become as red as blood.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The sun will-become-dark and the moon will-become-red like blood. This will-happen before the very frightening day of the judgment of the LORD.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Later really indeed (predictive formula) the sun will-become-dark, and the moon, it will-become-reddish like blood. Then will arrive the valuable day that has no equivalent when-I-will-come who am God.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Joel 2:31

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood: In the sky the portents may be eclipses of the sun and the moon (see the comments on verse 10). At such times the sun becomes completely black and the moon appears to be dark red, the color of blood. Clouds of dust or smoke in the air could also cause these portents to happen, even when no eclipse occurs. In many languages translators will prefer to follow the Good News Translation model here, which turns the metaphor of blood into a simile, saying “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood.”

The events both on earth and in the sky will take place before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. This is the first time the day of the LORD is clearly identified in this section (see the comments on this expression at 1.15). The adjectives great and terrible describe the same day in verse 11, so they should be rendered in the same way here in order to show that these verses are related. Since the LORD is speaking here, some translators may want to render this whole clause as “before that great and terrible day, when I, the LORD, come” (similarly Contemporary English Version, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

In some languages it may be better to mention the portents occurring in the sky with the sky, and those occurring on earth with the earth. This will require combining verses 30 and 31, and restructuring their parts. A model that does this is:

• And I will give warning signs on the earth:
blood and fire and columns of smoke.
And I will also give warning signs in the heavens:
the sun shall be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood.
All this will happen before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.

The following model keeps the chiastic order, but it places the last line of verse 31 first:

• Before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes,
I will give warning signs in the heavens and on the earth.
The warning signs on the earth will be
blood and fire and columns of smoke.
The warning signs in the heavens will be
that the sun shall be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood.

Quoted with permission from de Blois, Kees & Dorn, Louis. A Handbook on Joel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2020. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Joel 2:31

2:31a The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood

The sun will become dark and the moon will appear ⌊red⌋ like blood
-or-
The sun will stop giving light and the moon will look as ⌊red as⌋ blood.

2:31b before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

before the day of Yahweh arrives/comes. It will be a magnificent and terrible/fearful day!
-or-
Then will be that greatest day, that awesome day, when I Yahweh ⌊act/judge⌋ !
-or-
After that, it will be the time when I, Yahweh, will do my great and terrible work/deed ⌊of judgment⌋ .

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

Commentaire sur la traduction de Joël 2.31

Ce vers évoque d’autres signes dans le ciel qui terrifient les gens. Dans le premier vers, il y a un parallélisme assez frappant marqué par l’ellipse d’un verbe :
Le soleil tournera à ténèbres
Et la lune … au sang

Le soleil se changera en ténèbres décrit l’éclipse solaire, un phénomène naturel. En effet, par une série de circonstances assez rares, la lune peut parfois s’aligner avec le soleil. Elle se déplace devant celui-ci et le cache, bloquant sa lumière. Ainsi au milieu de la journée, il fait sombre comme la nuit. Bien qu’on puisse expliquer ce phénomène d’une manière scientifique, depuis le début des temps et encore aujourd’hui, les éclipses sont interprétées comme un signe d’un mal qui va arriver. Ainsi ici, elle est associée au terrible jour du SEIGNEUR. Les traducteurs devraient chercher une expression poétique si possible pour décrire ce phénomène. La Parole de Vie dit « Le soleil deviendra sombre », mais on pourra aussi dire « Le soleil deviendra tout noir (en pleine journée) ».

et la lune en sang : il y a aussi des phénomènes naturels qui font que la lune apparaisse tout rouge. Ici les images du poète deviennent encore plus frappantes. Il reprend le mot sang du dernier verset pour décrire la lune, et ainsi continue à évoquer la terreur de ce jour à venir. Dans la majorité des langues, il sera nécessaire de fournir un verbe, se changera, « tournera », etc. De manière plus explicite, on pourra dire « la lune sera rouge comme du sang » (Parole de Vie).

à l’avènement du jour du SEIGNEUR, grandiose et redoutable est en hébreu « devant la venue du jour de Yahweh grand et faisant peur ». Dans certaines langues, il faudrait utiliser des expressions verbales : « avant que ne vienne le jour du Seigneur » (Bible en français courant, Bible de Jérusalem) ou « avant que n’arrive le jour du Seigneur » (Nouvelle Bible Segond). Pour le jour du SEIGNEUR, voir Joël 2.1.

grandiose et redoutable : c’est ce qui est formidable mais qui, en même temps, fait peur, parce que personne ne connaît les intentions du Seigneur. On peut traduire par : « un grand jour qui fait peur ». Beaucoup de versions répètent le mot jour pour un effet poétique :

Ensuite, le jour du Seigneur viendra,
ce jour grand et terrible (Parole de Vie).

Source: Aroga Bessong, Dieudonné P.; Somé, Joachim & Zogbo, Lynell. Joël – Manuel de traduction – Commentaire linguistique et exégétique de la Bible. Alliance biblique universelle, 2010.