In the second discourse (2*-i'0 the language is highly poetical and rhetorical. The fi(fure before the prophet's mmd is that of an army which marches with unbroken ranks and irresistible force to the accomplishment of its mission. This army is J"'i host, at the head of which Ue marches (2"). The army, as we have seen, is the locusts (225) ; and, if the t^timony of travellers is to be relied on, the prophet's description as a whole, and the individual illustrations, arc true to nature. But no description of the calamity — however powerful and startling^^ain exhaust the prophet's duty in connexion with it. Such a jud^nncnt calls for humiliation and prayer on the part of the people; and the prophet urges this in terms scarcely less strikinL' than those employed in depicting the dtWne \isitation (l^-* 212-17).
The second part of the hook (21^ to the end), with J" as the speaker, contains the promise of blessings — first of tcraporai, and secondly of spiritual, hlessings. The first words of the promise show that the judgment is at an endCS^^b). Famine and drought are to cease ; prosi>erity is to be restored. The new abundance will compensate lor the losses inflicted by the ravages of the locusts, and Israel, having learned in the school of suffer- ing that J" alone is worthy of their trust, will acknowledge and rejoice in Him as their God (2'^^-^. This prepares the way for the bestowal of spiritual blessings (22»^, Heb. 8). The out- pouring of the Spirit on all the people, without distinction of age or sex, of rank or class, is to follow, in point of time, the restoration of material prosperity (228 'it shall come to pass a^ftenvard that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh '). IIow lon^ aftenvard is not indicated. On a matter of this kind the honzon of prophecy is undefined. Then shall come the day of the Lord, which occupies so prominent a place in the hook. This day, ushered in by awe-inspiring phenomena, is a day of doom for the nations hostile to Israel. These nations are brought down to the valley of Jehoshaphit (*J" judges'), where J"'s heavenly warriors crush them as grapes are crushed in the wine-press — cut them down as the grain is cut by the reaper. Israel, on the other hand, shall dwell securely m a land of extraordinary fertility, and J", enthioned on Mount Zion, shall dwell among them. The situation, a-i between the people of J" on the one side and the hostile powers on the other, is summed up in the pointed contrast at the close of the prophecy (vv.'9- ao Eg>-pt and Edom are to be a desolation ; Judah is to dwell under the favour of J" for ever).t
iii. Interpretation.— The interpretation of the prophecy depends on the view taken of tlie locusts. 1. Manj of the early Fathers explained the locusta figuratively; and in recent times this view has been supported in his usual fearless fashion by Heng- stenberg [Christ. ofOT, Eng. tr. i. 296 11'.). Accord- ing to this view, the prophecy refers to future events, and the locusts, in chs. 1 and 2, represent the world-powers opposed to the Church, — such aa J" judges on His great day (3^-=* [Heb. 4>- -]). 2. What may be regarded as a modification of thia ancient opinion has been recently proposed. Ac- cording to this view the locusts are apocalyj^tic, — creatures of a supernatural kind, such as may
* The words used in this verse for the locusts are the same as in 1*, but the order is different ; and the prophet perhaps refers to successive swarms of locusts rather than to the same swarm in different stages of growth.
t The connexion in which Egypt and Edom are mentioned at the end of the book deserves consideration. The Phuenicians and Philifltines appear (v.*) to have been actively hostile to Judah in the prophet's day. The Egj'ptians and I-xinmitet would naturally have been mentioned along with these i( tt ej hod stood in the same relation to Judah. And it is possible that in the antitlicsis at the close of the book, Egypt and Kdom ar« used tj'pically, — the former representing hostile powers thai had no family connexion with Judah, the latter those *,hat wer< of common ancestr}'.