Joel 2:7

7 Like warriors they charge, they scale the wall like soldiers. Each one keeps to his own course, without getting in the other's way.

Joel 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 2:7

They shall run like mighty men
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 the wall like men of war;
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, ( Exodus 10:6 ) ; and they shall march everyone on his ways;
in his proper path, following one another, and keeping just distance: and they shall not break their ranks;
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, ( Proverbs 30:27 ) ; and to encamp, ( Nahum 3:17 ) . Jerom on the text relates what he saw with his own eyes:

``this we lately saw (says he) in this province (Palestine); 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 chequered squares in a pavement fixed by the hands of artificers; so as not to decline a point, nor even I may say a nail's breadth;''

they keep as exact order as if military discipline was known and observed by them. Some render it, "they shall not ask their way" ^F14; being unconcerned about it, moving on in a direct line securely.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 (Mtxra Nwjbey al) "non interrogabunt [isti ab illo] de semitis suis", some in Vatablus, and others in Kimchi and Abendana.

Joel 2:7 In-Context

5 With a rumble like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like crackling flames devouring stubble, like a mighty horde in battle array.

6 At their presence the peoples writhe in anguish, every face is drained of color.

7 Like warriors they charge, they scale the wall like soldiers. Each one keeps to his own course, without getting in the other's way.

8 They don't jostle each other, but stay on their own paths; they burst through defenses unharmed, without even breaking rank.

9 They rush into the city, they run along the wall, they climb up into the houses, entering like a thief through the windows.