3 For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The time of the pagan - The time when the pagan (Egyptians) shall be judged.
For the day is near,.... The day of Egypt's destruction, the time fixed for it:
even the day of the Lord is near; the day appointed by him, and in which he would make himself known by the judgments he executed: Kimchi observes, that, the same year this prophecy was delivered, Egypt was given into the hands of the king of Babylon:
a cloudy day; or; "a day of cloud" (e); which was seldom seen in Egypt in a literal sense, rarely having any rain, their country being watered by the Nile; but now, in a figurative sense, the clouds would gather thick and black, and threaten with a horrible tempest of divine wrath, and of ruin and destruction:
it shall be the time of the Heathen: both when the Heathen nation of the Chaldeans should distress and conquer others; and when Heathen nations, as the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and others, should be destroyed by them. The Targum is,
"it shall be the time of the breaking or destruction of the people.''
(e) "dies nubis", V. L. Pagniaus, Montanus, Cocceius, Starckius.
the time of the heathen--namely, for taking vengeance on them. The judgment on Egypt is the beginning of a world-wide judgment on all the heathen enemies of God (Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1-2; Joel 3:1-21; Obadiah 1:15).
A cloudy day - So times of trouble are called. Of the heathen - The time when God will reckon with the Heathens.
*More commentary available at chapter level.