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Selected Verse: Joel 2:7 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Joe 2:7	Strong Concordance	They shall run [07323] like mighty men [01368]; they shall climb [05927] the wall [02346] like men [0582] of war [04421]; and they shall march [03212] every one [0376] on his ways [01870], and they shall not break [05670] their ranks [0734]:
	King James	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:

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Depicting the regular military order of their advance, "One locust not turning a nail's breadth out of his own place in the march" [JEROME]. Compare Pro 30:27, "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands."

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Depicting the regular military order of their advance, "One locust not turning a nail's breadth out of his own place in the march" [JEROME]. Compare Pro 30:27, "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands."

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
They shall run like mighty men - They are on God's message, and they linger not, "but rejoice to run their course" Psa 19:5. "The height of walls cannot hinder the charge of the mighty; they enter not by the gates but over the walls" , as of a city taken by assault. People can mount a wall few at a time; the locusts scale much more steadily, more compactly, more determinately, and irresistibly. The picture unites the countless multitude, condensed march, and entire security of the locust with the might of warriors. They shall march every one on his ways - There is something awful and majestic in the well-ordered flight of the winged locusts, or their march while yet unwinged. "This," says Jerome, "we have seen lately in this province (Palestine). For when the hosts of locusts came, and filled the air between heaven and earth, they flew, by the disposal of God ordaining, in such order, as to hold each his place, like the minute pieces of mosaic, fixed in the pavement by the artist's hands, so as not to incline to one another a hair's breadth." "You may see the locust," says Theodoret, "like enemies, both mounting the walls, and marching on the roads, and not allowing itself to be dispersed by any violence, but making the assault by a sort of concert." "It is said," says Cyril, "that they go in rank, and fly as in array, and are not severed from each other, but attend one on the other, like sisters, nature infusing into them this mutual love." : "They seemed to be impelled by one common instinct, and moved in one body, which had the appearance of being organized by a leader." : "There is something frightful in the appearance of these locusts proceeding in divisions, some of which are a league in length and 200 paces in breadth." : "They continued their journey, as if a signal had been actually given them to march." So, of the young brood it is related; : "In June, their young broods begin gradually to make their appearance; no sooner were any of them hatched than they immediately collected themselves together, each of them forming a compact body of several hundred yards square, which, marching afterward directly forward, climbed over trees, walls and houses, ate up every plant in their way, "and let nothing escape them." : "They seemed to march in regular battalions, crawling over everything that lay in their passage, in one straight front." So the judgments of God hold on their course, each going straight to that person for whom God in the awful wisdom of His justice ordains it. No one judgment or chastisement comes by chance. Each is directed and adapted, weighed and measured, by Infinite Wisdom, and reaches just that soul, for which God appointed it, and no other, and strikes upon it with just that force which God ordains it. As we look on, God's judgments are like a heavy sleet of arrows; yet as each arrow, shot truly, found the mark at which it was aimed, so, and much more, does each lesser or greater judgment, sent by God, reach the heart for which He sends it and pierces it just as deeply as He wills.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

They shall run like mighty men - They are on God's message, and they linger not, "but rejoice to run their course" Psa 19:5. "The height of walls cannot hinder the charge of the mighty; they enter not by the gates but over the walls" , as of a city taken by assault. People can mount a wall few at a time; the locusts scale much more steadily, more compactly, more determinately, and irresistibly. The picture unites the countless multitude, condensed march, and entire security of the locust with the might of warriors.

They shall march every one on his ways - There is something awful and majestic in the well-ordered flight of the winged locusts, or their march while yet unwinged. "This," says Jerome, "we have seen lately in this province (Palestine). For when the hosts of locusts came, and filled the air between heaven and earth, they flew, by the disposal of God ordaining, in such order, as to hold each his place, like the minute pieces of mosaic, fixed in the pavement by the artist's hands, so as not to incline to one another a hair's breadth." "You may see the locust," says Theodoret, "like enemies, both mounting the walls, and marching on the roads, and not allowing itself to be dispersed by any violence, but making the assault by a sort of concert." "It is said," says Cyril, "that they go in rank, and fly as in array, and are not severed from each other, but attend one on the other, like sisters, nature infusing into them this mutual love." : "They seemed to be impelled by one common instinct, and moved in one body, which had the appearance of being organized by a leader." : "There is something frightful in the appearance of these locusts proceeding in divisions, some of which are a league in length and 200 paces in breadth." : "They continued their journey, as if a signal had been actually given them to march."

So, of the young brood it is related; : "In June, their young broods begin gradually to make their appearance; no sooner were any of them hatched than they immediately collected themselves together, each of them forming a compact body of several hundred yards square, which, marching afterward directly forward, climbed over trees, walls and houses, ate up every plant in their way, "and let nothing escape them." : "They seemed to march in regular battalions, crawling over everything that lay in their passage, in one straight front." So the judgments of God hold on their course, each going straight to that person for whom God in the awful wisdom of His justice ordains it. No one judgment or chastisement comes by chance. Each is directed and adapted, weighed and measured, by Infinite Wisdom, and reaches just that soul, for which God appointed it, and no other, and strikes upon it with just that force which God ordains it. As we look on, God's judgments are like a heavy sleet of arrows; yet as each arrow, shot truly, found the mark at which it was aimed, so, and much more, does each lesser or greater judgment, sent by God, reach the heart for which He sends it and pierces it just as deeply as He wills.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
In Joe 2:7-10 the comparison of the army of locusts to a well-equipped army is carried out still further; and, in the first place, by a description of the irresistible force of its advance. Joe 2:7. "They run like heroes, like warriors they climb the wall; every one goes on its way, and they do not change their paths. Joe 2:8. And they do not press one another, they go every one in his path; and they fall headlong through weapons, and do not cut themselves in pieces. Joe 2:9. They run about in the city, they run upon the wall, they climb into the houses, they come through the windows like a thief." This description applies for the most part word for word to the advance of the locusts, as Jerome (in loc.) and Theodoret (on Joe 2:8) attest from their own observation. (Note: Jerome says: "We saw (al. heard) this lately in the province (Palestine). For when the swarms of locusts come and fill the whole atmosphere between the earth and sky, they fly in such order, according to the appointment of the commanding God, that they preserve an exact shape, just like the squares drawn upon a tesselated pavement, not diverging on either side by, so to speak, so much as a finger's breadth. 'And,' as he (the prophet) interprets the metaphor, 'through the windows they will fall, and not be destroyed.' For there is no road impassable to locusts; they penetrate into fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and houses, and even the recesses of the bed-chambers." And Theodoret observes on Joe 2:8: "For you may see the grasshopper like a hostile army ascending the walls, and advancing along the roads, and not suffering any difficulty to disperse them, but steadily moving forward, as if according to some concerted plan." And again, on Joe 2:9 : "And this we have frequently seen done, not merely by hostile armies, but also by locusts, which not only when flying, but by creeping along the walls, pass through the windows into the houses themselves.") They run like heroes - namely, to the assault: רוּץ referring to an attack, as in Job 15:26 and Psa 18:30, "as their nimbleness has already been noticed in Joe 2:4" (Hitzig). Their climbing the walls also points to an assault. Their irresistible march to the object of their attack is the next point described. No one comes in another's way; they do not twist (עבט) their path, i.e., do not diverge either to the right hand or to the left, so as to hinder one another. Even the force of arms cannot stop their advance. שׁלח is not a missile, telum, missile (Ges. and others), but a weapon extended or held in front (Hitzig); and the word is not only applied to a sword (Ch2 23:10; Neh 4:11), but to weapons of defence (Ch2 32:5). בּצע, not "to wound themselves" (= פּצע), but "to cut in pieces," used here intransitively, to cut themselves in pieces. This does no doubt transcend the nature even of the locust; but it may be explained on the ground that they are represented as an invincible army of God. (Note: The notion that these words refer to attempts to drive away the locusts by force of arms, in support of which Hitzig appeals to Liv. hist. xlii. 10, Plinii hist. n. xi. 29, and Hasselquist, Reise nach Pal. p. 225, is altogether inappropriate. All that Livy does is to speak of ingenti agmine hominum ad colligendas eas (locustas) coacto; and Pliny merely says, Necare et in Syria militari imperio coguntur. And although Hasselquist says, Both in Asia and Europe they sometimes take the field against the locusts with all the equipments of war," this statement is decidedly false so far as Europe is concerned. In Bessarabia (according to the accounts of eye-witnesses) they are merely in the habit of scaring away the swarms of locusts that come in clouds, by making a great noise with drums, kettles, hay-forks, and other noisy instruments, for the purpose of preventing them from settling on the ground, and so driving them further. Hass's account of a pasha of Tripoli having sent 4000 soldiers against the insects only a few years ago, is far too indefinite to prove that they were driven away by the force of arms.) On the other hand, the words of Joe 2:9 apply, so far as the first half is concerned, both to the locusts and to an army (cf. Isa 33:4; Nah 2:5); whereas the second half applies only to the former, of which Theodoret relates in the passage quoted just now, that he has frequently seen this occur (compare also Exo 10:6).

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

In Joe 2:7-10 the comparison of the army of locusts to a well-equipped army is carried out still further; and, in the first place, by a description of the irresistible force of its advance. Joe 2:7. "They run like heroes, like warriors they climb the wall; every one goes on its way, and they do not change their paths. Joe 2:8. And they do not press one another, they go every one in his path; and they fall headlong through weapons, and do not cut themselves in pieces. Joe 2:9. They run about in the city, they run upon the wall, they climb into the houses, they come through the windows like a thief." This description applies for the most part word for word to the advance of the locusts, as Jerome (in loc.) and Theodoret (on Joe 2:8) attest from their own observation.

(Note: Jerome says: "We saw (al. heard) this lately in the province (Palestine). For when the swarms of locusts come and fill the whole atmosphere between the earth and sky, they fly in such order, according to the appointment of the commanding God, that they preserve an exact shape, just like the squares drawn upon a tesselated pavement, not diverging on either side by, so to speak, so much as a finger's breadth. 'And,' as he (the prophet) interprets the metaphor, 'through the windows they will fall, and not be destroyed.' For there is no road impassable to locusts; they penetrate into fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and houses, and even the recesses of the bed-chambers." And Theodoret observes on Joe 2:8: "For you may see the grasshopper like a hostile army ascending the walls, and advancing along the roads, and not suffering any difficulty to disperse them, but steadily moving forward, as if according to some concerted plan." And again, on Joe 2:9 : "And this we have frequently seen done, not merely by hostile armies, but also by locusts, which not only when flying, but by creeping along the walls, pass through the windows into the houses themselves.")

They run like heroes - namely, to the assault: רוּץ referring to an attack, as in Job 15:26 and Psa 18:30, "as their nimbleness has already been noticed in Joe 2:4" (Hitzig). Their climbing the walls also points to an assault. Their irresistible march to the object of their attack is the next point described. No one comes in another's way; they do not twist (עבט) their path, i.e., do not diverge either to the right hand or to the left, so as to hinder one another. Even the force of arms cannot stop their advance. שׁלח is not a missile, telum, missile (Ges. and others), but a weapon extended or held in front (Hitzig); and the word is not only applied to a sword (Ch2 23:10; Neh 4:11), but to weapons of defence (Ch2 32:5). בּצע, not "to wound themselves" (= פּצע), but "to cut in pieces," used here intransitively, to cut themselves in pieces. This does no doubt transcend the nature even of the locust; but it may be explained on the ground that they are represented as an invincible army of God.

(Note: The notion that these words refer to attempts to drive away the locusts by force of arms, in support of which Hitzig appeals to Liv. hist. xlii. 10, Plinii hist. n. xi. 29, and Hasselquist, Reise nach Pal. p. 225, is altogether inappropriate. All that Livy does is to speak of ingenti agmine hominum ad colligendas eas (locustas) coacto; and Pliny merely says, Necare et in Syria militari imperio coguntur. And although Hasselquist says, Both in Asia and Europe they sometimes take the field against the locusts with all the equipments of war," this statement is decidedly false so far as Europe is concerned. In Bessarabia (according to the accounts of eye-witnesses) they are merely in the habit of scaring away the swarms of locusts that come in clouds, by making a great noise with drums, kettles, hay-forks, and other noisy instruments, for the purpose of preventing them from settling on the ground, and so driving them further. Hass's account of a pasha of Tripoli having sent 4000 soldiers against the insects only a few years ago, is far too indefinite to prove that they were driven away by the force of arms.)

On the other hand, the words of Joe 2:9 apply, so far as the first half is concerned, both to the locusts and to an army (cf. Isa 33:4; Nah 2:5); whereas the second half applies only to the former, of which Theodoret relates in the passage quoted just now, that he has frequently seen this occur (compare also Exo 10:6).

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Their ranks - This skill in ordering and the steadiness in keeping under, exactly like trained soldiers, foretells the terror and strength of both the armies signified by these locusts, and of the locusts themselves.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Like mighty men - like men of war (and as horsemen, Joe 2:4) - The prophet does not say they are such, but they resemble. They are locusts; but in their operations they are Like the above. They shall not break their ranks - See the account on Joe 2:2, from Dr. Shaw.

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²⁷ The locusts [0697] have no king [04428], yet go they forth [03318] all of them by bands [02686];

⁵ Which is as a bridegroom [02860] coming out [03318] of his chamber [02646], and rejoiceth [07797] as a strong man [01368] to run [07323] a race [0734].

⁶ And they shall fill [04390] thy houses [01004], and the houses [01004] of all thy servants [05650], and the houses [01004] of all the Egyptians [04714]; which neither thy fathers [01], nor thy fathers [01]' fathers [01] have seen [07200], since the day [03117] that they were upon the earth [0127] unto this day [03117]. And he turned [06437] himself, and went out [03318] from Pharaoh [06547].

⁵ He shall recount [02142] his worthies [0117]: they shall stumble [03782] in their walk [01979]; they shall make haste [04116] to the wall [02346] thereof, and the defence [05526] shall be prepared [03559].

⁴ And your spoil [07998] shall be gathered [0622] like the gathering [0625] of the caterpiller [02625]: as the running to and fro [04944] of locusts [01357] shall he run [08264] upon them.

⁹ They shall run to and fro [08264] in the city [05892]; they shall run [07323] upon the wall [02346], they shall climb up [05927] upon the houses [01004]; they shall enter in [0935] at the windows [02474] like a thief [01590].

⁵ Also he strengthened [02388] himself, and built up [01129] all the wall [02346] that was broken [06555], and raised it up [05927] to the towers [04026], and another [0312] wall [02346] without [02351], and repaired [02388] Millo [04407] in the city [05892] of David [01732], and made [06213] darts [07973] and shields [04043] in abundance [07230].

¹¹ And our adversaries [06862] said [0559], They shall not know [03045], neither see [07200], till we come [0935] in the midst [08432] among [08432] them, and slay [02026] them, and cause the work [04399] to cease [07673].

¹⁰ And he set [05975] all the people [05971], every man [0376] having his weapon [07973] in his hand [03027], from the right [03233] side [03802] of the temple [01004] to the left [08042] side [03802] of the temple [01004], along by the altar [04196] and the temple [01004], by the king [04428] round about [05439].

⁴ The appearance [04758] of them is as the appearance [04758] of horses [05483]; and as horsemen [06571], so shall they run [07323].

³⁰ As for God [0410], his way [01870] is perfect [08549]: the word [0565] of the LORD [03068] is tried [06884]: he is a buckler [04043] to all those that trust [02620] in him.

²⁶ He runneth [07323] upon him, even on his neck [06677], upon the thick [05672] bosses [01354] of his bucklers [04043]:

⁸ Neither shall one [0376] thrust [01766] another [0251]; they shall walk [03212] every one [01397] in his path [04546]: and when they fall [05307] upon the sword [07973], they shall not be wounded [01214].

⁷ They shall run [07323] like mighty men [01368]; they shall climb [05927] the wall [02346] like men [0582] of war [04421]; and they shall march [03212] every one [0376] on his ways [01870], and they shall not break [05670] their ranks [0734]:
⁸ Neither shall one [0376] thrust [01766] another [0251]; they shall walk [03212] every one [01397] in his path [04546]: and when they fall [05307] upon the sword [07973], they shall not be wounded [01214].
⁹ They shall run to and fro [08264] in the city [05892]; they shall run [07323] upon the wall [02346], they shall climb up [05927] upon the houses [01004]; they shall enter in [0935] at the windows [02474] like a thief [01590].
¹⁰ The earth [0776] shall quake [07264] before [06440] them; the heavens [08064] shall tremble [07493]: the sun [08121] and the moon [03394] shall be dark [06937], and the stars [03556] shall withdraw [0622] their shining [05051]:

² A day [03117] of darkness [02822] and of gloominess [0653], a day [03117] of clouds [06051] and of thick darkness [06205], as the morning [07837] spread [06566] upon the mountains [02022]: a great [07227] people [05971] and a strong [06099]; there hath not been [01961] ever [05769] the like, neither shall be any more [03254] after [0310] it, even to the years [08141] of many [01755] generations [01755].

⁴ The appearance [04758] of them is as the appearance [04758] of horses [05483]; and as horsemen [06571], so shall they run [07323].