The Day of the Lord in the Old Testament

The “day of the Lord” is an important theme in the books of the prophets. Sometimes “the day” refers to a time when God will judge over Israel and the other nations, or sometimes, in contrast, a day when he will bring salvation.

Before the Babylonian exile, the classical prophets describe the “day of the Lord” mainly as a day of doom. God will punish the inhabitants of Israel and Judah because they did not obey his laws. It will be a time of fear, darkness and natural disasters, and Israel will be oppressed by other nations.
We can find this image in Hosea, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah and Joel, as well as in some parts of Isaiah.

In 586 BC, the inhabitants of Judah were struck by a great disaster. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians, and part of the population was taken into exile. Some prophets saw this as a sign that the day of the Lord had come (see for example Lamentations 1:21; Ezekiel 34:12).
But before long, the “day of the Lord” was given an eschatological meaning once more. The emphasis shifted to the day of the Lord as a time of salvation for God’s people. The judgement was primarily to be aimed at the enemies of Israel, such as Egypt, Edom and Babylon. This image can for example be seen in Obadiah (Obadiah 1:15), and in passages in Ezekiel (for instance Ezekiel 30:3).

Prophetic scriptures from after the exile (and occasionally texts in the classical prophets) paint a different picture. Here, the day of the Lord is a time when God will help his people and restore them again.
God himself will intervene for his people (Malachi 3:17). He will let the Israelites return to their own land (Isaiah 11:11-12), and he will reign as king over Israel or over the entire world (Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:6-7). Peace will reign over all the earth (Hosea 2:18; Isaiah 11:1-10), and there will be abundance (Isaiah 4:2). Everyone will come to know God in that time (Isaiah 19:19-25).
Some texts mention the coming of a Davidic king (for example Zechariah 3:8-10).