Interpreting Joel 2 and the Nature of Joel’s Army
Question
Does Joel 2:2-11 describe an army of great people, an army of locusts, or something else?
Originally published in Vol. 1, Number 9, September 2026, Ask The Theologian Journal.
Answer
Joel 2:1–11 presents a formidable invading force associated with the approaching “day of the Lord.” The question is whether this force is (1) a literal human army, (2) a locust plague described in military terms, or (3) a more complex, possibly otherworldly, host symbolized by locust imagery.
Key observations from Joel 2:1–11
The passage opens with an alarm:
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain... for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;” (Joel 2:1)
Then describes:
“a great people and a strong” (2:2);
A fire devouring before them and desolation behind them (2:3);
Their appearance “as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run” (2:4);
Motion “like the noise of chariots” and “as a strong people set in battle array” (2:5);
Highly disciplined movement, not breaking ranks, not thrusting one another (2:7–8);
Entry into houses and windows “like a thief” (2:9);
Cosmic disturbances accompanying their advance (2:10);
The declaration: “the Lord shall utter his voice before his army” (2:11).
Repeated similes (“as,” “like”) indicate Joel uses figurative comparisons. The text does not straightforwardly answer whether the underlying reality is insect or human; rather, it blends imagery.
Connection with Joel 1 and locust imagery
Joel 1 strongly emphasizes a devastating locust invasion:
“That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.” (Joel 1:4)
Shortly thereafter, the invading force is called “a nation” (Joel 1:6), language often used of peoples but here apparently applied to the consuming swarm.
Many interpreters see chapter 1 describing a literal, historical locust plague, and chapter 2 using that plague as the pattern or metaphor for a future, more terrible invasion associated with the day of the Lord. On that reading:
Joel 2 does not merely repeat the locust plague, but escalates it into a prophetic picture of an overwhelming, ordered force.
The locust imagery functions as a symbol of total, inescapable devastation, whether the final fulfillment is human, demonic, or mixed.
Human army, locusts, or something else?
Three main options arise:
1. A human army only.
Some see Joel 2 as a poetic description of a human military invasion (e.g., Assyrian, Babylonian). The discipline, battle array, and impact on inhabitants fit this. However, details such as falling on the sword and not being wounded (Joel 2:8) and their swarm-like characteristics suggest something beyond ordinary soldiers.
2. A locust plague only.
Others read Joel 2 as a heightened description of the same or a similar locust invasion. The earlier chapter favors the locust background. Yet the very martial language (battle array, mighty men, climbing walls like men of war) stretches insect imagery to the limit and may be typological of something greater.
3. A prophetic, possibly otherworldly, army symbolized by locusts.
A more nuanced view sees:
A historical locust plague in chapter 1 as the backdrop.
Chapter 2 developing this into a prophetic portrayal of a future, end-time invasion in the day of the Lord.
The invading host functioning as the Lord’s army in the sense that He uses it as His instrument of judgment, even if the army itself is wicked.
The possibility that this army includes or represents non-human entities, a thought supported by comparisons with other prophetic passages.
For instance, Daniel 2:43 speaks of a future mixture that “shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another,” which many have taken as suggesting an other-than-human component in end-time powers. When this is set alongside Joel’s language of invulnerability to the sword and the almost supernatural coordination of the host, an otherworldly or transhuman element becomes at least a plausible reading.
Caution regarding “Joel’s army” as the triumphant church
Certain latter-rain and hyper-charismatic movements have popularized the notion of “Joel’s army” as a final generation of extraordinary believers, endowed with superior spiritual powers, who will conquer the world, overcome all demonic opposition, and establish a dominion before Christ returns. This interpretation often goes hand-in-hand with a postmillennial or dominionist outlook.
This reading is highly problematic:
The context is judgment associated with the day of the Lord, not a triumphant church establishing righteousness on earth by its own advance.
The devastating and terrifying character of the army, and the call to repentance that follows in Joel 2, point more to an instrument of chastisement than to a victorious company of glorified saints.
Constructing an identity for the modern church as “Joel’s army” in this sense requires importing concepts into Joel that are not present in the text.
It is better to avoid using “Joel’s army” language to describe a supposed end-time super-church.
A restrained conclusion
Given the mixture of locust and military imagery and the eschatological setting, the safest synthesis is:
Joel 1 describes a literal locust plague that God calls “my great army.”
Joel 2 uses that plague as the pattern and vocabulary for a future, overwhelming force associated with the day of the Lord.
This future force may be human, demonic, or some other God-directed host, and may well have an otherworldly dimension, but the text does not allow us to specify its exact composition with certainty.
Thus, we can say that Joel 2 portrays a divinely directed, end-time army analogous to an all-consuming locust swarm, used by the Lord as His instrument in the day of the Lord. But we should refrain from dogmatic identification beyond what the text clearly supports.