Joel 2:31

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, etc.] Not by eclipses, as Aben Ezra; but by the clouds of smoke arising from the burning of towns and cities, which would be so great as to obscure the sun, and through which the moon would look like blood: or all, this may be understood in a figurative sense of the change that should be made in the ecclesiastic and civil state of the Jewish nation, signified by the “heavens” and “earth”; and particularly that their king or kingdom should be in a low, mean, and distressed condition, designed by the sun; and the change of their priesthood is signified by the “moon”: so Vitringa on (<232423>Isaiah 24:23); interprets the “sun” here…”

“Before the great and terrible Day of the Lord come - o: “The days of our life are our days wherein we do what we please; that will be the “Day of the Lord,” when He, our Judge, shall require the account of all our doings. It will be “great,” because it is the horizon of time and eternity; the last day of time, the beginning of eternity. It will put an end to the world, guilt, deserts, good or evil. It will be “great,” because in it great things will be done. Christ with all His Angels will come down and sit on His Throne; all who have ever lived or shall live, shall be placed before Him to be judged; all thoughts, words, and deeds shall be weighed most exactly; on all a sentence will be…”

“The sun - Having mentioned the prodigies which were to be wrought on earth, he now specifies what shall be done in heaven. The terrible day - The unholy day of the destruction of Jerusalem; typifying the day of judgment. Joel 2:32”

“sun: Joe 2:10, Joe 3:1, Joe 3:15; Isa 13:9, Isa 13:10, Isa 34:4, Isa 34:5; Mat 24:29, Mat 27:45; Mar 13:24, Mar 13:25; Luk 21:25; Rev 6:12, Rev 6:13 the great: Zep 1:14-16; Mal 4:1, Mal 4:5 Joel 2:32”

“For Joe 2:31, see at Joe 2:1, Joe 2:11. But it is only by the world and its children that the terrible day of the Lord is to be feared; to the children of God it brings redemption ( Luk 21:28). Whoever calls upon the name of Jehovah, i.e., the believing worshippers of the Lord, will be exempted from the judgment. "Calling upon the name of Jehovah" signifies not only the public worship of God, but inward worship also, in which the confession of the mouth is also an expression of the heart. Upon Mount Zion will be pelētâh, i.e., not deliverance, but that which has escaped, or, in a collective sense, those who have escaped the judgment, as the synonym serı̄dı̄m, which follows, clearly shows.…”