Discovery BoxMatthew 9:15 
Context9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests 1 cannot mourn while the bridegroom 2 is with them, can they? But the days 3 are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, 4 and then they will fast.
Matthew 24:29
Context24:29 “Immediately 5 after the suffering 6 of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 7
1 tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).
2 sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).
3 tn Grk “days.”
4 sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.
5 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
6 tn Traditionally, “tribulation.”
7 sn An allusion to Isa 13:10, 34:4 (LXX); Joel 2:10. The heavens were seen as the abode of heavenly forces, so their shaking indicates distress in the spiritual realm. Although some take the powers as a reference to bodies in the heavens (like stars and planets, “the heavenly bodies,” NIV) this is not as likely.
