Amos 8:9

“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, etc.] When this deluge and desolation of the land shall be, now spoken of: that I will cause the sun to go down at noon: or to he so dark as if it was set; as at the time of our Lord’s crucifixion, to which many of the ancient fathers refer this prophecy, though it has respect to other times and things. Jarchi interprets it of the kingdom of the house of David. It doubtless designs the kingdom of Israel, their whole policy, civil and ecclesiastic, and the destruction of it; particularly their king, princes, and nobles, that should be in great adversity, and that suddenly and unexpectedly; it being a fine sunshine morning with them,…”

“"Darkness" made to rise "at noon" is the emblem of great calamities (Jer 15:9; Eze 32:7-10).”

“I will cause the sun to go down - Darkness is heaviest and blackest in contrast with the brightest light; sorrow is saddest, when it comes upon fearless joy. God commonly, in His mercy, sends heralds of coming sorrow; very few burst suddenly on man. Now, in the meridian brightness of the day of Israel, the blackness of night should fall at once upon him. Not only was light to be displaced by darkness, but “then,” when it was most opposite to the course of nature. Not by gradual decay, but by a sudden unlooked-for crash, was Israel to perish. Pekah was a military chief; he had reigned more than seventeen years over Israel in peace, when, together with Rezin king of Damascus, he attempted to…”

“At noon - So Israel's sun did as at noon set under the dark cloud of conspiracies and civil wars by Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hosea, 'till the midnight darkness drew on by Pul, Tiglath - Pilneser, and Salmaneser. Darken - Bring a thick cloud of troubles and afflictions. In the clear day - When they think all is safe, sure, and well settled. Amos 8:10”

“8:9 The day of the Lord would invert the cosmos. Jeremiah used similar imagery to describe the desecration of Judah as the Babylonian armies approached (Jer 4:23; see also Isa 13:10; 34:4; 50:3; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 2:10, 31; Mic 3:6).”

“that I: This is supposed to refer to an eclipse; and Abp. Usher has shown that about eleven years after Amos prophesied there were two great eclipses of the sun, one at the feast of tabernacles, and the other some time before the passover. Amo 4:13, Amo 5:8; Job 5:14; Isa 13:10, Isa 29:9, Isa 29:10, Isa 59:9, Isa 59:10; Jer 15:9; Mic 3:6; Mat 24:29; Rev 6:12, Rev 8:12 and I: Exo 10:21-23; Mat 27:45; Mar 15:33; Luk 23:44 Amos 8:10”

“"And it will come to pass on that day, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, I cause the sun to set at noon, and make it dark to the earth in clear day. Amo 8:10. And turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and bring mourning clothes upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and make it like mourning for an only one, and the end thereof like a bitter day." The effect of the divine judgment upon the Israelites is depicted here. Just as the wicked overturn the moral order of the universe, so will the Lord, with His judgment, break through the order of nature, cause the sun to go down at noon, and envelope the earth in darkness in clear day. The words of the ninth…”