Joel 2:7-10

7-10. The comparison with a well-equipped army is taken up again and carried further; the advance is irresistible; there is no confusion or disorder in their ranks; they climb the highest walls; they penetrate the inmost recesses of the houses.

They… run To the assault; advance, charge (Psalms 18:29; Job 15:26). There is no delay (Joel 2:4); if they have decided upon a point of attack they carry out their plan; nothing can impede their progress; walls they climb like men of war. They do not get into one another’s way, they advance straight ahead, without turning to the right or left. An admirable description of the advance of locusts (compare remark on Joel 2:4). Jerome says: “When the swarms of locusts come and fill the whole atmosphere between earth and sky, they fly, according to the appointment of the commanding God, in such order that they preserve an exact shape, just like the squares drawn upon a tessellated pavement, not diverging on either side by, so to speak, so much as a finger’s breadth.… There is no road impassable to locusts; they penetrate into fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and houses, and even the recesses of the bedchambers.” So also Theodoret: “You may see the locusts like a hostile army ascending the walls, and advancing the roads, not suffering any difficulty to disperse them, but steadily moving forward as if according to some concerted plan.”

And when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded Better, R.V., “and they burst through the weapons, and break not off their course.” No resistance is effective; they throw themselves upon the weapons and pass on without being disturbed or confused. Some may be wounded and drop, but the great mass continues in regular order. This is a better interpretation than that implied in the translation, “They did not cut themselves to pieces” (Keil), or “without being wounded” (Von Orelli). The verse would seem to imply that the people were accustomed to meet the locusts with weapons to fight them off; and that is actually done, according to the statements of some travelers. “Both in Asia and Europe they sometimes take the field against the locusts with all the implements of war” (Hasselquist). “The guard of the Red Town attempted to stop their irruption into Transylvania by firing at them; and indeed when the balls and shot went through the swarm they gave way and divided; but having filled up their ranks in a moment they proceeded on their journey” (quoted by Pusey). Thomson also speaks of the impossibility of stopping their progress: “We dug trenches and kindled fires, and beat and burned to death heaps upon heaps, but the effort was utterly hopeless.” Livy and Pliny seem to have known of similar methods of fighting the locusts.

Sword R.V., “weapons”; Hebrews shelah; not the ordinary word for weapon, but one used only in late writings; it seems to have been a weapon that was extended or held in front.

Held back by nothing, the host (9) forces its way into the city.

They shall run to and fro in the city Hebrews shaqaq; literally, drive, impel to run, then, run hither and thither; here not, “they run to and fro in the city” after mastering it (A.V., Driver, Hitzig), but “they throw themselves upon the city” (Isaiah 33:4; Nahum 2:4). Again they are successful; they run upon the wall, yea, they get into the houses themselves. On Joel 2:9 Theodoret makes this comment: “And this we have frequently seen done, not merely by hostile armies but also by locusts, which not only when flying but by creeping along the walls penetrate into dwellings by the light holes.” “During the great plague of locusts in 1865 many inhabitants of Nazareth were compelled to leave their homes” (Riehm).

Windows Glass was and still is exceedingly scarce in the Orient, therefore expensive and used but rarely for windows; the latter consist ordinarily of lattice work, and serve also as chimneys out of which smoke may escape; so it was quite easy for locusts to creep through.

Like a thief Would hardly be said of a hostile army, but is true of the locusts.

With Joel 2:10 a new start is made. The whole earth is terrified, for it becomes clear that the judgment is of unusual significance. The thought of the day of Jehovah becomes more prominent and influences the description to a large extent.

Before them The singular, as in Joel 2:6, while the verbs in the preceding verses referring to the locusts are in the plural; yet the pronoun refers undoubtedly to the swarm of locusts which are looked upon as a unit. The preposition is not the same as in Joel 2:6; in the latter causality is implied, here the phenomena spoken of may be regarded not as caused by the locusts, but simply accompanying them; it leaves it undecided whether the locusts of 2-9 or Jehovah (Joel 2:11) is the cause.

The earth shall quake… the heavens shall tremble “It is not that the strength of the locusts is so great that it can move the heavens and shake the earth, but that, to those who suffer from such calamities, through the greatness of their own terror the heavens appear to shake and the earth to reel” (Jerome).

Shall be dark Heb, kadhar, “coal black”; not a particle of light is to be seen. The day of Jehovah is inaugurated by extraordinary phenomena in the sphere of nature (Joel 2:30-31; Joel 3:15; Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 13:13; Amos 8:9). The locusts do darken the sky, but here the reference seems to be to something more we are in the sphere of the apocalyptic to the approach of Jehovah himself, before whom all nature stands in awe and terror. The thought of an actual earthquake, eclipse, or severe thunderstorm may have been in the mind of the prophet; but this is not certain, though the coming of Jehovah is often pictured in the imagery of a storm (Psalms 18:7 ff.). The whole is a vivid picture of the terror that overcomes man and nature when it is discovered that Jehovah approaches for judgment. Jehovah is the leader of the hosts.

Utter his voice Of command; Hebrews nathan qol; a very common Old Testament expression to designate thunder. Only so can he make himself understood, because the camp is very great It stretches far into the distance, and the noise made by the locusts must be drowned; it is this vastness of the army also that makes it necessary to have a divine commander. The introduction of the next two clauses with “for” rather weakens the message of the prophet; they should be translated as exclamations (G.-K., 148d), emphasizing the vastness of Jehovah’s army: “Yea, strong is he that executeth his word” the army of locusts (2-9, 25), which carries out his command; “yea, the day of Jehovah.” Here again the day cannot be identified with the calamity already experienced; it is still in the future, though near at hand. Already the wonderful phenomena that announce the day are seen in the sky (Joel 2:31; Malachi 4:5).

Who can abide Or, endure. No one can stand its terrors. The forerunner has exhausted all resources, all strength. Complete annihilation threatens, unless somehow the final blow can be turned aside.