John Gill Commentary Joel 2

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy
mountain

This is spoken to the priests, whose business it was to blow the trumpets for calling solemn assemblies to meet in Zion, the temple built there, called from which the holy mountain of God. Here the trumpet is ordered to be blown with a broken quivering voice, a tarantantara, to give notice of approaching danger by the locusts, or those enemies signified by them, and to prepare for it, and return to God by repentance;

let all the inhabitants of the land tremble at the judgments of God coming upon them, and the alarm of them:

for the day of the Lord cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand; the time fixed by him to punish a wicked people, and to pour out his wrath and vengeance on them; the day of his visitation, not in love, but in anger.

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of
thick darkness
Alluding to the gloomy and thick darkness caused by the locusts, which sometimes come in prodigious numbers, like thick clouds, and darken the air; so the land of Egypt was darkened by them, (Exodus 10:15) ; historians and travellers relate, as Bochart ^F6 has shown, that these creatures will fly like a cloud, and darken the heavens at noonday, cover the sun, and hinder the rays of it from touching the earth; though all these phrases may be expressive of great afflictions and calamities, which are often in Scripture signified by darkness, as prosperity is by light; see (Isaiah 8:22) (9:1) ;

as the morning spread upon the mountains ;
as the morning light, when it first appears, diffuses itself in a moment throughout the earth, and is first seen on the tops of the mountains ^F7 ; so these locusts, and this calamity threatened, should suddenly and at once come, and be spread over the whole land; and which could no more be resisted than the morning light. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, in connection with the next clause, "as the morning spread upon the mountains, a people much and mighty"; but the accents will not admit of it; though it may seem a little improper that the same thing should be as a dark day, and: the morning light; wherefore Cocceius understands the whole of the day of Christ, which was light to many nations, and darkness to the wicked Jews:

a great people and a strong ;
numerous and mighty, many in number, mighty in strength; so the locusts are represented as a nation and people for might and multitude, (Joel 1:6) ; an emblem of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, who were a large and powerful people: there has not been ever the like, neither shall any more afterit ,
[even] to the years of many generations ;
that is, in the land of Judea; otherwise there might have been the like before in other places, as in Egypt, and since in other countries. Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi, account for it thus; that it was never known, before or since, that four kinds of locusts came together; as for the plague of Egypt, there was but one sort of them, they say; but it is best to understand it of the like not having been in the same country: and such a numerous and powerful army as that of the Chaldeans had not been in Judea, and made such havoc and desolation as that did; nor would any hereafter, for many generations, even until the Romans came and took away their place and nation.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 479.
• F7: "Postera vix summos spargebat lumine montes Orta dies----", Virgil. Aeneid. 12.

A fire devoureth before them, and behind them aflame burneth, &c.] This is not to be understood of the heat of the sun, or of the great drought that went before and continued after the locusts; but of them themselves, which were like a consuming fire; wherever they came, they devoured all green grass, herbs, and leaves of trees, as fire does stubble; they sucked out the juice and moisture of everything they came at, and what they left behind shrivelled up and withered away, as if it had been scorched with a flame of fire: and so the Assyrians and Chaldeans, they were an emblem of, destroyed all they met with, by fire and sword; cut up the corn and herbage for forage; and what they could not dispense with they set fire to, and left it burning. Sanctius thinks this refers to fire, which the Chaldeans worshipped as God, and carried before their armies as a sacred and military sign; but this seems not likely:

the land [is] as the garden of Eden before them; abounding with fields and vineyards, set with fruitful trees, planted with all manner of pleasant plants, and all kind of corn growing upon it, and even resembling a paradise: and behind them a desolate wilderness; all green grass eaten up, the corn of the field devoured, the vines and olives destroyed, the leaves and fruit of them quite gone, and the trees themselves barked; so that there was just the same difference between this country before the calamities described came upon it, and what it was after, as between the garden of Eden, or a paradise, and the most desolate wilderness; such ravages were made by the locusts, and by those they resembled:

yea, and nothing shall escape them; no herb, plant, or tree, could escape the locusts; nor any city, town, or village, nor scarce any particular person, could escape the Chaldean army; but was either killed with the sword, or carried captive, or brought into subjection. The Targum interprets it of no deliverance to the ungodly.

The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of horses in their running, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; they came with as much swiftness and eagerness, with as much fierceness and courage, as horses rush into the battle. Bochart^F8 has shown, from various writers, that the head of a locust is in shape like that of a horse; and Theodoret on the text observes, that whoever thoroughly examines the head of a locust will easily perceive that it is very like the head of a horse; see (Revelation 9:7). The Chaldeans are often represented as strong and mighty, fierce and furious, and riding on horses exceeding swift, (Jeremiah 4:13) (5:15) (Habakkuk 1:6–8); and as horsemen, so shall they run; with great agility and swiftness. The particle "as" is observed by some, against those interpreters that apply this wholly to the enemies of the Jews, and not the locusts; and it seems indeed best to favour them; but Theodoret observes, that the "as" here may be taken, not as a note of similitude, but as used for the increase and vehemency of the expression.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 474, 475.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of that mountains shall
they leap
The motion of the locusts is leaping from place to place; for which the locusts have legs peculiarly made, their hindermost being the longest; wherefore Pliny ^F9 observes, that insects which have their hindermost legs long leap locusts; to which agrees the Scripture description of them: "which have legs above your feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even those of them you may eat; the locust after his kind", (Leviticus 11:21Leviticus 11:22) ; which words, as Dr. Shaw ^F11 , observes, may bear thisconstruction: "which have knees upon" or "above their [hinder] legs, to leap withal upon the earth"; and heobserves, that the (hbrah) , "locust", has the two hindermost of its legs orfeet much stronger, larger, and longer, than any of the foremost; in them the knee, or the articulation ofthe leg and thigh, is distinguished by a remarkable bending or curvature, whereby it is able, wheneverprepared to jump, to spring and raise itself with great force and activity.

And this fitly resembles the jumping of chariots on mountains and hills, which are uneven, and usually have stones lie scattered about, which, with the chains and irons about chariots, cause a great rattling; and the noise of locusts is compared to the noise of these, which is represented as very great; some say it is to be heard six miles off, as Remigius on the place; and Pliny says ^F12 , they make such a noise with their wings when they fly, that they are thought to be other winged fowls; see (Revelation 9:9) . Chariots were used in war, and the Chaldeans are said to have chariots which should come like a whirlwind, (Jeremiah 4:13) .

like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble ;
as they are before compared to fire, and a flame of fire that devoured all things as easily as firedevours stubble, so here to the crackling noise of it; see (Ecclesiastes 7:6) ; as a strongpeople set in battle array :
that is, as the noise of a mighty army prepared for battle, just going to make the onset, when they lift uptheir voices aloud, and give a terrible shout; for this clause, as the other two, refer to the noise made bythe locusts in their march; an emblem of the terribleness of the Chaldeans in theirs, who were heard beforethey were seen.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 48.
• F11: Travels, p. 420. Ed. 2.
• F12: Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.