Joel 2:4

4. As… horses The head of the locust bears a strong resemblance to the head of a horse, as Theodoret (c. 450 A.D.) remarked: “If you carefully consider the head of the locust you will find it exceedingly like that of a horse.” Tristram, referring to this passage, says, “To this day the same metaphor is familiar in every Arab camp. One of my Arabs gave me a long list of reasons why the locust is like the horse or horseman.” It is this similarity that explains one of the German words for locust, Heupferd ( hay-horse). Not only in appearance, but also in rapidity of motion, locusts resemble horses. For A.V. “horsemen” read margin of R.V., “war-horses.” In Joel 2:5 the noise accompanying the advance of the innumerable horses is compared to the rattling of chariots Low two-wheeled vehicles used for military and other purposes. Chariots were not adapted to the hills of Palestine, but the Canaanites used them in the valleys (Joshua 17:16; Judges 4:3). They were common also among other ancient nations. The Persians armed the axles and sometimes the tongue with scythes, and such chariots were known in Palestine during the Seleucidan period ( 2Ma 13:2 ). For an expansion of this picture compare Revelation 9:7 ff.

On the tops of mountains Not to be connected with “chariots,” for chariots cannot well be used on the mountains, but with they leap The locusts are seen to approach over the mountains, and “they come so near the top of the mountains that they seem to leap over them rather than to fly.” The noise meant is the indistinct sound heard in the distance; the next comparison brings them nearer. Travelers compare the noise made by the wings of the locusts to the blowing of a wind, the rush of a torrent, the roar of the sea. “The noise made by them in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower falling upon a distant forest” (Thomson).

Having pictured the locusts approaching from the distance, he now describes them as they are devouring herbs, plants, shrubs, and trees.

Flame The noise made while eating is like the noise of a flame that sweeps over a dry field.

Stubble Fires during the dry season are not uncommon in Palestine (Joel 1:19; Isaiah 5:24; Amos 7:4); sometimes the stubbles are set on fire for purposes of fertilization. Our passage refers to fire, whatever its origin.

Strong people in battle array The point of comparison is not the noise, but the orderly steady advance. “Their number was astounding; the whole face of the mountain was black with them; on they came like a disciplined army” (Thomson). “They seemed to march in regular battalions, crawling over everything that lay in their passage” (Morier). The impression made is the same as that made by a hostile army. Everybody is terror-struck.

The people R.V., “the peoples.” Neither is correct; the Hebrew has no article “peoples,” that is, whole nations.

Shall be much pained Or, with R.V., “are in anguish,” a very strong word, used especially of the anguish of women in travail (Deuteronomy 2:5; Isaiah 13:8; Micah 4:9). Hardly an exaggeration, for locusts do cause immense loss of property and are responsible for disastrous famines. “In Algiers after an invasion of locusts in 1866 two hundred thousand persons are said to have perished from famine” (Driver). “The Bedouins who occupy the Sinaitic peninsula are frequently driven to despair by the multitudes of locusts” (Burkhardt).

All faces… gather blackness So Targum, Peshitto, Vulgate, and a few later writers, but an impossible translation of the Hebrew; better, R.V., “all faces are waxed pale”; literally, all faces draw in redness, that is, beauty, healthy color. As a result of terror the blood leaves the face and returns to the inward parts of the body; only paleness remains (Jeremiah 30:6).