Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 2:5

"Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array." — Joel 2:5 (ASV)

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they leap - The amazing noise of the flight of locusts is compared by those who have heard them to all sorts of deep, sharp, rushing sounds.

One says, “Their noise may be heard six miles away.” Others state, “Within a hundred paces I heard the rushing noise caused by the flight of so many millions of insects. When I was in the midst of them, it was as loud as the dashing of the waters caused by a mill wheel”; further descriptions note: “While passing over our heads, their sound was like a great cataract”; “We heard a noise like the rushing of a great wind at a distance”; “In flying they make a rushing, rustling noise, like when a strong wind blows through trees”; and “They cause a noise like the rushing of a torrent.”

To add another vivid description: “When a swarm is advancing, it seems as though brown clouds are rising from the horizon, which, as they approach, spread more and more. They cast a veil over the sun and a shadow on the earth. Soon you see little dots, and observe a whizzing and life. Nearer yet, the sun is darkened; you hear a roaring and rushing like gushing water. Suddenly you find yourself surrounded with locusts.”

Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble - The sharp noise caused by these myriads of insects while feeding has also been noticed.

For instance: “You hear from afar the noise they make browsing on the herbs and trees, like an army foraging without restraint”; “When they alight on the ground to feed, the plains are all covered, and they make a murmuring noise as they eat, devouring everything close to the ground in two hours”; “The noise they make in devouring always announces their approach from some distance”; and “They say that their descent on the fields is not effected without a noise, and that there is a certain sharp sound as they chew the grain, like when the wind strongly fans a flame.”

Their noise, Joel says, is like the “noise of chariots.” Thus John says (Revelation 9:9), the sound of their wings was as the sound of many horses rushing to battle. Their sound is to be like the sound of war-chariots, hounding in their speed; but their inroad will be where chariots could not go and man’s foot could rarely reach, on the tops of the mountains.

A mountain range is, next to the sea, the strongest natural protection. Mountains have been a limit to the mightiest powers. The Caucasus formerly restrained the Persian power; on one side, all was enslaved, on the other, all was fearlessly free. More recently, it enabled a few mountaineers to hold at bay the power of Russia. The pass of Thermopylae, until betrayed, enabled a handful of men to check the invasion of nearly two million.

The mountain ridges of Spain were, from before the time of our Lord, the last home and rallying place of the conquered or the birthplace of deliverance. God had assigned to His people a spot, central later for the conversion of the world, yet where, meanwhile, they lay enveloped and sheltered amid the mountains which His Right Hand purchased (Psalms 78:54).

The Syrians acknowledged that their God was the God of the hills (1 Kings 20:23); and the people confessed, as the hills are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people (Psalms 125:2). Their protection was a symbol of His.

But His protection withdrawn, nothing would be a hindrance to those whom He would send as a scourge. The prophet deliberately combines incompatible things: the terrible, heavy bounding of the scythed chariot, and the light speed with which these countless hosts would in their flight bound over the tops of the mountains, where God had made no path for man.

Countless in number, boundless in might, are the instruments of God. The strongest national defenses give no security. Where then is safety, except in fleeing from God displeased to God appeased?