Joel 2:4-11

4-11. Having described in general terms the destructiveness of the people great and strong, the prophet pictures most vividly the appearance of the host and its terrible advance. The locusts he compares to horses (4), the noise accompanying the advance to the noise of advancing armies and of a consuming fire (5), producing terror wherever they go (6), their attack to the attack of a well-equipped, well-organized army (7-9); even the sky is darkened (10); surely the day of Jehovah is at hand (11). The prophet has been so successful in his description that the thing compared and the object to which it is compared have been confused, and the locusts have been regarded as mere symbols of a hostile army (compare above, pp 142ff).