Joel 2:7

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:

Ver. 7. They shall run like mighty men] Horribiles, fortissimi ut gigantes. They shall strike terror into others, as in the former verse, but themselves, as giants and conquerors, shall overrun all with incredible swiftness and prowess. Strong soldiers have strong sinews, and thence their speedy marches and quick despatch. "Asahel was light of foot as a wild roe," 2 Samuel 2:18. Achilles is everywhere by Homer called swift-footed, ποδας ωκυς. Alexander the Great, being asked how he so quickly conquered so many countries, answered, Mηδεν αναβαλλομενος, by my nimbleness. Caesar in omnia princeps, Caesar in all things first, saith Lucan, he passed the Alps, and was at Rome with a trice, as they say. His word was, Veni, vidi, vici, I no sooner came, but I overcame. He is said to have taken a thousand towns, conquered three hundred nations, took prisoner one million of men, and to have slain as many. What a deal was done by Joshua in a short space at the conquest of Canaan? Charles V, Emperor of Germany, is reported to have won in the Indies, by his captains and commanders there, twenty-eight kingdoms in twenty-eight battles. Bajazet, the great Turk, for his swiftness and fierceness, was surnamed Gilderun, or lightning. To such worthy warriors, ready and speedy, prompt and present, are these locusts, God's armed soldiers, here compared. "They shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like men of war," that cannot be kept out, that will not be worsted.

They shall march every one (Heb., man) on his way] Though many, yet they shall not one hinder or hurt another, but hold a comely equipage, keep rank and file, observe the laws and rules of discipline, and so

“ Coniuneti pollent etiam vehementer inertes. ”

They go forth all of them by bands, or gathered together, saith Solomon, Proverbs 30:27. So do those locusts in the Revelation, the Popish clergy under their king, the destroyer, Revelation 9:11. Locusts they are fitly called for their numerosity and voracity. The Jesuits alone have sometimes 200,000 scholars. And how they feed on the fat and drink the sweet where they swarm who knows not.

They shall not break their ranks] Or, writhe and pervert their paths, as Aben Ezra out of the Arabic idiom rendereth it. Jerome testifieth that he and others saw in Judea troops of locusts flying in so even an order, ut ne puncto quidem aut ungue transverso declinent ad alteram, that you could not say they brake rank at all; tanto ordine et dispositione iubentis Dei volitant, saith he, so strict and beautiful discipline there is in God's whole army, to whom belong the shields of the earth, the militia of the whole world, Psalms 47:9 .