The Day of the Lord
They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: Joel 2:7
They shall run... Alas for the... The 2nd section of the prophecy of Joel (Joel 1:15-2:11, unfulfilled; will be fulfilled in the day of the Lord, the battle of Armageddon, and the second coming of Christ). Next, Joel 2:12.
Forty-four Predictions—Unfulfilled:
1. The day of the Lord is at hand (Joel 1:15).
2. It will be a day of destruction from the Almighty.
3. All worship and rejoicing will be cut off from the temple (Joel 1:16).
4. There will be a crop failure (Joel 1:17).
5. The garners will be desolate.
6. The barns will be broken down.
7. There will be a great drought (Joel 1:18)
8. The pastures and trees will be destroyed (Joel 1:19).
9. The beasts of the field will cry to God because the waters are dried up (Joel 1:20).
10. Fire will devour the pastures of the wilderness.
11. The day of the Lord is near (Joel 2:1).
12. A day of darkness and gloominess.
13. A day of clouds and thick darkness.
14. There will come a great and strong people upon the land (Joel 2:2)
15. There never has been nor ever will be again, even for many generations, a people coming into the land like this.
16. A fire will devour before them (Joel 2:3).
17. Behind them a flame will burn.
18. The land before them will be like the garden of Eden; and what they have gone over will be like a wilderness.
19. Nothing will escape them.
20. Their appearance is like horses and horsemen; so shall they run (Joel 2:4).
21. Their noise will be like chariots on the tops of the mountains (Joel 2:5).
22. It will be like the flame of fire that devours stubble.
23. They will be as a strong people in battle array.
24. Before their face the people will be much pained (Joel 2:6)
25. All faces will gather darkness.
26. They will run like mighty men (Joel 2:7)
27. They will climb the wall like men of war.
28. They will march every one on his ways.
29. They will not break their ranks.
30. They will not thrust one another (Joel 2:8).
31. They will walk every one in his path.
32. When they fall upon the sword they will not be wounded.
33. They will run to and fro in the city (Joel 2:9).
34. They will run upon the wall.
35. They will climb upon the houses.
36. They will enter the windows.
37. The earth will shake before them.
38. The heavens will tremble (Joel 2:10).
39. The sun and moon will be dark.
40. The stars will withdraw their shining.
41. The Lord will be their commander and utter His voice before His army (Joel 2:11).
42. His camp will be very great.
43. He is strong that will execute His word.
44. The day of the Lord will be great and very terrible.
Like men of war, in a hostile way, as soldiers run upon their enemy with undaunted courage and bravery. Bochart from Pisidas describes the locusts’ manner of fighting, who says, they strike not standing, but running.
they shall climb... Scale the walls of cities as besiegers do; walls and bulwarks cannot keep them out; all places are accessible to them, walled cities, towns, yea, even houses (Exo. 10:6).
they shall march... In his proper path, following one another, and keeping just distance.
and they shall... Or “pervert their ways”, as the word signifies in the Arabic language, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, observe; that is, decline not from their paths, as the Septuagint version; proceed in an orderly way, keep rank and file.
So they are said to go forth in bands (Pro. 30:27); and to encamp (Nah. 3:17).
Jerom on the text relates what he saw with his own eyes: “this we lately saw (says he), in this province (Israel); for when swarms of locusts came, and filled the air between heaven and earth.
They flew in such order, by the disposition and command of God, that they kept their place like checkered squares in a pavement fixed by the hands of skilled craftsmen; so as not to decline a point, nor even I may say a very small measure.
This is speaking of them being in swarms that do not separate out, but move as a unit. A wall would be nothing to them. They would just go over it and destroy behind it. The wall might slow down a natural army, but not these locusts. The movement across the land is swift, and their destruction is total. Gods army on the move.
Once more the relentless advance of the army is emphasized (cf. Joe. 2:4-5). Again the language applies both to locusts (cf. Driver, The Books of Joel and Amos, pp. 54-5; and Keil, “Joel,” in Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, 10:193, n. 1) and to a literal army.
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