Joel 2:5

Like the noise of chariots, &c. Cf. Revelation 9:9, "And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war." The remarkable noise made by a flight of locusts is noticed by many travellers. "Within a hundred paces, I heard the rushing noise occasioned by the flight of so many millions of insects. When I was in the midst of them, it was as loud as the dashing of waters occasioned by the mill-wheel." "While passing over our heads, their sound was as of a great cataract." "In flying they make a rushing, rustling noise, as when a strong wind blows through trees." Cf. below, p. 87 (No. 1), 89 (No. 4), 90 (No. 7).

like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble Here the reference is to the sound made by the insects while feeding. Cyril long ago compared the noise of locusts browsing to that of a wind φλόγα διαῤῥιπίζοντος (ap.Boch. Hieroz. 3:309); and C. V. Riley, the eminent American entomologist, speaks of it as resembling "the crackling of a prairie-fire" (Riverside Nat. Hist.2., p. 197). "The sound of their feeding, when in swarms, is as the rushing of flames driven by the wind" (Newman, Hist. of Insects, Joel 2:1, cited in the Speaker's Comm.).

as a strong people set in battle array cf. Joel 2:2. They prepare for the attack like a mighty nation, seized to a man with martial ardour, and arrayed in order for the fray.