Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 2:9

"They leap upon the city; they run upon the wall; they climb up into the houses; they enter in at the windows like a thief." — Joel 2:9 (ASV)

They shall run to and fro in the city. — “The city,” unquestionably, is Jerusalem. So to the Romans, “the city” meant Rome; to the Athenians, Athens; among us, “town” or “the city” are idiomatic names for the whole of London or “the City of London.” In Wales, “town” is, with the country people, the neighboring town with which they are most familiar. There is no ambiguity in the living language. In Guernsey, one who called Port St. Peter by any other name than “the town” would reveal himself to be a stranger.

In Hosea and Amos, prophets for Israel, “the city” is Samaria (Hosea 11:9; Amos 3:6). In Solomon (Psalms 72:16; Proverbs 1:21; Proverbs 8:3) and the prophets of Judah (Micah 6:9; Lamentations 1:1, and other passages; Ezekiel 7:23; Ezekiel 33:21), “the city” is Jerusalem; and this is especially so because it was not only the capital, but the center of the worship of the One True God.

Hence, it is called “the city of God” (Psalms 46:4; Psalms 48:1, 8; Psalms 87:3), “the city of the Lord” (Psalms 101:8; Isaiah 60:14), then “the city of the Great King” (Psalms 48:2; Matthew 5:35), “the holy city” (Isaiah 48:2; Isaiah 52:1; Nehemiah 11:1, 18; Daniel 9:24); and God calls it “the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel” (1 Kings 11:32), “the city of righteousness” (Isaiah 1:26). So our Lord spoke, “Go you into the city” (Matthew 26:18; Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10), and perhaps, “Tarry you in the city.” So do His Evangelists (Matthew 21:17–18; Matthew 28:11; Mark 11:1, 19; Luke 19:41; Acts 7:58; John 19:20), and so does Josephus.

All around corresponds with this. Joel had described their approach; they had come over “the tops of the mountains,” those which protected Jerusalem; and now he describes them scaling “the wall,” “mounting the houses,” “entering the windows,” “running to and fro in the city.” Here the description has reached its height. The city is given over to those who assault it. There remains nothing more, except “the shaking of the heaven and the earth.”

They shall enter in at the windows. — So in that first great judgment, in which God employed the locust, He said, “They shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth; and they shall fill your houses, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians” (Exodus 10:5–6).

: “For nothing denies a way to the locusts, since they penetrate fields, grain fields, trees, cities, houses, even the privacy of bedrooms.”

“Not that those who are victors have the fear which thieves have, but as thieves are accustomed to enter through windows and plunder secretly, so will these, if the doors are closed, to cut short delay, burst with all boldness through the windows.”

: “We have seen this done, not by enemies only, but often by locusts also. For not only flying, but creeping up the walls also, they enter the houses through the openings for light.”

: “A.D. 784, there came the flying locust, and destroyed the grain and left its offspring; and these came forth and crawled, and scaled walls and entered houses by windows and doors; and if it entered the house on the south side, it went out on the north; together with herbs and trees it devoured also woolen clothing, and men's clothing.”

Modern travelers relate the same.

: “They entered the innermost recesses of the houses, were found in every corner, stuck to our clothes and infested our food.”

: “They overwhelm the province of Nejd sometimes to such a degree, that having destroyed the harvest, they penetrate by thousands into the private dwellings, and devour whatever they can find, even the leather of the water vessels.”

: “In June 1646, at Novgorod it was astonishing to see them, because they were hatched there that spring, and being still barely able to fly, the ground was all covered, and the air so full of them, that I could not eat in my room without a candle, all the houses being full of them, even the stables, barns, rooms, attics, and cellars. I caused gunpowder and sulphur to be burnt, to expel them, but all to no avail. For when the door was opened, an infinite number came in, and the others went fluttering about; and it was troublesome when a person went outside, to be hit in the face by those creatures—on the nose, eyes, or cheeks—so that one could not open one's mouth without some getting in. Yet all this was nothing, for when we were to eat, they gave us no rest; and when we went to cut a piece of meat, we also cut a locust with it, and when a person opened their mouth to put in a morsel, they were sure to chew one of them.”

The eastern windows, not being glazed but having at most latticework, presented no obstacle to this continuous influx. All was one stream of infesting, harassing foes.

As the windows are to the house, so are the senses, and especially the sight, to the soul. Just as the strongest walls, battlements, and towers do not avail to keep out an enemy if there is an opening or chink through which he can make his way, so the protection of God’s Providence or His Grace is in vain if the soul leaves the senses unguarded to admit unchallenged sights, sounds, and touches, which may take the soul prisoner.

: “Death,” says Jeremiah, “enters through the window” (Jeremiah 9:21). Your window is your eye. If you see so as to lust, death has entered in; if you hear enticing words, death has entered in; if softness gains possession of your senses, death has made its way in.”

The arrow of sin is shot through them.

: “When the tongue of one introduces the virus of perdition, and the ears of others gladly drink it in, “death enters in;” while with itching ears and mouth people minister eagerly to one another the deadly drink of slander, “death enters in at the windows.”

: “Eve had not touched the forbidden tree, unless she had first looked at it carelessly. With what control must we in this dying life restrain our sight, when the mother of the living came to death through the eyes! The mind of the prophet, which had often been lifted up to see hidden mysteries, seeing another’s wife carelessly, was darkened and fell.”

“To keep purity of heart, you must guard the outward senses.”

An enemy is easily kept out by a barred door or window; an enemy which, having entered unawares, can only be forced out by strong effort and grace.

“It is easier,” said the pagan philosopher, “to forbid the beginnings of feelings than to control their might.”

Like a thief. — That is, they will come unawares, so as to take people by surprise, so that there will be no guarding against them. As this is the close of this wonderful description, he may intend, in the end, to describe the suddenness and inevitability of God’s judgments when they indeed come, and of the final judgment.

It is remarkable that our Lord and His Apostles (following Him) adopt this image from the prophet when speaking of the coming of the Day of Judgment and His own coming: “Behold I come as a thief. This know that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched. Be you therefore ready also, for the Son of Man comes at an hour when you think not. You yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. You are not in darkness, that that Day should overtake you as a thief” (Revelation 16:15 (see also Revelation 3:3); Matthew 24:43–44; Luke 12:39; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10).