Joel 2:7

7 The locusts charge ahead like warriors. They climb over walls like soldiers. All of them march in line. They don't turn to the right or the left.

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.

---

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 They sound like chariots as they leap over the mountaintops. They crackle like fire burning up dry weeds. They are like a mighty army that is ready for battle.

6 When people see them, they tremble with fear. All of their faces turn pale.

7 The locusts charge ahead like warriors. They climb over walls like soldiers. All of them march in line. They don't turn to the right or the left.

8 They don't bump into one another. Each of them marches straight ahead. They charge through everything that tries to stop them. But they still stay in line.

9 They attack a city. They run along its wall. They climb into houses. They enter through windows like robbers.