THEOSISJerome of Stridon
Oh, what a momentous day! The day of the Lord approaches, and like a devastation from the Almighty, He will come. Woe to me, woe to me, woe to me on this day! The day of the Lord is near, and a calamity from distress will follow. Instead of our translation—“from the Almighty”—the Hebrew text uses the term Saddai, which we have noted several times as one of God's names. The Septuagint translates this as distress, reading ѕоd instead of ѕaddai. These are the words of the priests and the people addressing the Lord, repeating “woe” three times, perhaps signifying how their transgressions have offended the Holy Trinity.
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The day of retribution for all sins is the one all prophets speak of, particularly Isaiah who cries out: ‘This is the day of the Lord, a day of unhealed fury and wrath is drawing near, to make the entire world desolate, and to annihilate sinners from the earth’ (Isaiah 13:9). This day is justly termed the day of unhealing, as at judgment there will be no possibility for repentance, and, relative to eternity, it is indeed very close. The subsequent phrase—“as trouble from trouble shall he come,” or “as desolation from the Almighty shall he come”—implies that one calamity will follow another, and every misdeed will be faced with God's judgment, who has the power to annihilate both body and soul in Gehenna (Matthew 10:28). What has been said concerning judgment in a general sense can be particularly applied to the time of the Jewish exile, when Jerusalem fell and the temple was destroyed; shortly thereafter, the ten and two tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians and Chaldeans. Yet, the future is foretold so that when it arrives, it may not seem to have occurred by mere chance or through enemy might, but rather by the wrath and decree of God; or possibly, so that if the people repent, that which would have been realized had they continued in their sins may be avoided.