Charles Ellicott Commentary Joel 2

Blow ye the trumpet.— The preaching of the prophet increases in its intensity. Behind the locusts, exemplified by them, there is a still more terrible visitation. He sees on the horizon a mustering of the nations hostile to his people, bent on destroying them.

Let the priests stir up the people for a fast, and for the defence of their land by the trumpet. The locusts have done their symbolical work; they have left their mark on the country. Now the day of Jehovah, the manifestation of His power, is approaching—it is imminent.

The morning spread upon the mountains.— The Hebrew word here used for morning is derived from a verb, Shachar, which has for one meaning “to be or become black,” for the second “to break forth” as light. From this latter signification is derived the word for morning—dawn; from the former comes the word “blackness,” which gives the name Sihor to the Nile (Isaiah 23:3). It seems accordingly more in harmony with the present context to take the sense of the word in its reference to blackness, and to understand it as indicating a thick, dark, rolling cloud settled upon the mountain top. The description following comprehends equally the natural and political locusts.

Before them ... behind them.— As with the locusts, so with the invading hosts of enemies: the country is found a paradise, and left a desert.

As the appearance of horses.— So also are locusts described in the Revelation: And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle (from this likeness the Italians call a locust cavalletta) ... and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle (Revelation 9:7, 9:9).

All faces shall gather blackness.— There are different explanations of this Hebrew phrase, which expresses the result of terror. Some translate it “withdraw their ruddiness,” i.e., grow pale; others, “draw into themselves their colour;” others, “contract a livid character.”

The alternative rendering in the margin, “pot,” which is that of the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and of Luther’s translation, is obtained from the similarity of the Hebrew words for “ruddiness” and “pot.” The comparison is in this case between the faces growing black under the influence of fear, and of pots under the action of fire. The prophet Nahum uses the same expression (Joel 2:10).