Matthew 24:29
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Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS. (Mat 25:1-13) Then--at the time referred to at the close of the preceding chapter, the time of the Lord's Second Coming to reward His faithful servants and take vengeance on the faithless. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom--This supplies a key to the parable, whose object is, in the main, the same as that of the last parable--to illustrate the vigilant and expectant attitude of faith, in respect of which believers are described as "they that look for Him" (Heb 9:28), and "love His appearing" (Ti2 4:8). In the last parable it was that of servants waiting for their absent Lord; in this it is that of virgin attendants on a Bride, whose duty it was to go forth at night with lamps, and be ready on the appearance of the Bridegroom to conduct the Bride to his house, and go in with him to the marriage. This entire and beautiful change of figure brings out the lesson of the former parable in quite a new light. But let it be observed that, just as in the parable of the Marriage Supper, so in this--the Bride does not come into view at all in this parable; the Virgins and the Bridegroom holding forth all the intended instruction: nor could believers be represented both as Bride and Bridal Attendants without incongruity.
Open source ↗24:29-31 These sayings form the climax of the discourse and answer the second of the disciples’ initial questions (see 24:3). Some take 24:29-31 to refer to God’s judgment on the Jewish people in AD 70, using apocalyptic images and metaphors to describe it. Others see a reference to the second coming of Christ at the end of history. 24:29 the sun will be darkened . . . will be shaken: This phenomenon can be taken literally, as befitting the climactic self-disclosure of God’s Son, or metaphorically, as for a cosmically significant event (see Acts 2:17-21; Heb 12:26-27; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 6:12-13). Similar apocalyptic language is used frequently in the Old Testament for describing political disasters and the collapse of a government as cosmic judgments from God (e.g., Isa 13:9-16; Ezek 32:1-10; Joel 2:1-17; Amos 8:7-10).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.
For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.
All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.
But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.
Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.
Then the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun and moon and stars were struck. A third of the stars were darkened, a third of the day was without light, and a third of the night as well.
Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.