Let me add, what energy and ardor are there in the description of the noise which these creatures make when they are compared to the rattling of chariots upon the tops of mountains, to the crackling of fire confuming the stubble, and the shout of an army, drawn up in battle-array, to ftrike terror into their enemies?

Verfe 7. They fhall run like mighty men, "they fhall climb the wall like men of war; " and they fhall march every one on his ways, " and they shall not break their ranks."

They shall be swift and inconquerable, and shall scale your houses in defiance of all your opposition, and perform all this, like a marshalled army, without any confusion in their ranks. "They fly," fays JEROM, in a passage quoted by BOCHART," in fuch order by the disposition

and command of GOD, that every one keeps "his place, like the squares in a pavement, and "doth not deviate from it, if I may so speak, fo "much as a point. Nor does JEROM speak this «from uncertain report, but as an eye-witness, This, fays he, we have lately seen in this pro"vince, meaning Palestine *.

Quod ita fe habere his verbis afferit Hieronymus, tanto ordine, ex jubentis Dei difpofitione, volitant; ut inftar tefterularum, quæ in pavimentis artificis manu, fuum locum teneant, ut ne pun&to quidem, ut ita dicam, declinent ad alteram. Neque ex incerta traditione id refert, fed tanquam teftis aurons. Hoc nuper, inquit, in hac provincia (Palæftinæ) vidimus. BOCHART. ibid. 477.

Verfe 8. Neither fhall they thrust one ano"ther; they fhall walk every one in his path: sand when they fall upon the fword, they fhall " not be wounded."

The sword is of great fervice as a defence against fome enemies, but it will not at all avail for the deliverance of a country from the invasion of Locufts; and when they fall or pitch upon it, fuch is their natural agility, and fuch the hardness of the coat of mail that covers their bodies, that they are not wounded. "Other "animals, fays BOCHART, flee away at the sight «of a man, but these animals of their own ac"cord attack him. Accordingly, when a cloud "of Locufts is coming, all persons retire into "their houses, that they may not by going "abroad provoke their rage. Nor is there the leaft profpect of repelling them by the fword.

They are borne along by a blind impulse; "nor do they dread the attack of the fword, of are they easily wounded by it, since by their « own lightnefs, and the fmallness of their bo

dies, they would elude any ftrokes that might "be made at them: and besides, as it is juftly ❝ obferved by CLAUDIAN,

"Their native clothing fortifies their backs,

And nature arms them with a coat of mail

Verfe

Reliqua enim animalia, vifo homine, fugiunt; fed hæc hominem ultro impetunt. Proinde cum locuftarum nubes ingruit, omnes in ædibus latent, ne, fi prodeant, eas provocent.

Nec

Verse 9. They fhall run to and fro in the

city: they fhall run upon the wall, they shall $ climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief."

No places fhall be fecure from these bold in vaders; no mounds, no bulwarks, no strong and high walls fhall ftop their march; and houses and fecret chambers fhall be infested with these noxious creatures, and nothing shall be able to prevent their entrance, or chase them away. «No "height of walls, fays THEODORET, who was "an eye-witness of this plague of Locusts, is "able to hinder their accefs. They will easily

pass the walls, and, like thieves, enter by the "windows into the houses; things which we "have often seen done by Locufts, for not only "by flying, but by creeping up the walls, they "enter through the windows into the houses +."

Verfe 10. The earth shall quake before them, "the heavens fhall tremble, the fun and the s moon fhall be dark, and the ftars fhall with" draw their fhining." And verse 11. " The

LORD fhall utter his voice before his army, for "his camp is very great, for he is ftrong that X 4

SS executes

Nec eft quod armis intentatis has abigi poffe fperas. Ferun tur enim cæco impetu, neque enfes timent, aut iis facile fau ciantur. Sua fcilicet levitate, & corpufculi tenuitate quofvis ictus eludunt. Præterea ut à Claudiano recte animadverfum cognatus dorfo durefcit amictus, Armavit natura cutem

BOCHART. ibid. 478.

BOCHART. ibid. 478.

"executes his word; for the day of the LORD " is very great and very terrible, and who can "abide it?"s

"KIMCHI," fays Dr CHANDLER upon the place, tells us, that "all these expressions are

by way of similitude, to denote the greatness "of the affliction occasioned by thefe Locufts,

according to the ufual custom of Scripture: " and herein JEROM agrees with him, who tells ❝us, that we are not to imagine that the hea"vens moved, or the earth fhook; but that

these things feemed to be fo through the "greatness of their affliction and terror. Others expound the Metaphor in a different way. “The earth, that is, the common people; the fun, "moon, and stars, their nobles and great men; all "ranks and degrees fhould be in the utmost con«fternation but I fee not," fays the Doctor, "why these expressions may not have a more li"teral meaning, at least most of them." Accordingly we may thus interpret the passage. "The earth fhall quake before them," really appear to do fo through the continual motion of thefe creatures that overfpread its face, or through the excefsive fear and univerfal trembling of the inhabitants. "The heavens fhall tremble; fhall feem to tremble by the cloud of these infects waving their wings in the air, and flying hither and thither under the whole cope of heaven. "The fun and the moon fhall be dark, and the stars fhall withdraw their fhining:"

• Commentary on Joel, page 52.

How

How literally true this prediction might be in fuch a plague of Locufts as the Prophet defcribes, chap. ii. 2. the invasion of a great people and a strong, fuch an invasion as there " had never been the like, neither fhould there be any more after it, even to the years of many generations," we may learn from the accounts given of the Locufts from PLINY, and from the Chronicon of HERMANUS CONTRACTUS.>

PLINY'S account is as follows. "Their eggs are destroyed by the rains in the spring, but in a dry fpring there is a larger increase: they are driven away by the winds in fwarms, "and fall into feas and lakes. Perhaps this

r

happens to them by accident, and not, as the "ancients fuppofed, by their wings being wetted "with the moisture of the night. The ancients " also tell us, that they fly not by night through "fear of the cold, not knowing that they will "pass over wide feas, and, which may feem to "us most wonderful, that they will endure hunger for feveral days together, for the fake

of the provision of foreign countries. This "plague is attributed to the anger of the Gods; "for fometimes they are very great, and make "fuch a noise with their wings, that you would

suppose them to be a larger kind of flying crea"tures. They alfo darken the fun, while the "people from below behold them with a painful "folicitude, left they fhould light upon their «fields. Their strength is very great, and, as if it " was a small matter to fly over the seas, they run through