2:2 the like. The description of the invading host in this chapter goes well beyond even a legitimate metaphorical description of an invading swarm of locusts, as terrible as that can be. Such locust plagues have occurred many times in the Middle East and elsewhere. They might well serve as a type of the great armies that will invade the Holy Land in the last days, but the comparison does not emphasize the reality described here.

The prophecy may refer to the armies of Gog, which shall “come like a storm,…like a cloud to cover the land” (Ezekiel 38:9). Or it may refer to the time seen by the prophet Zechariah, who while also speaking of “the day of the LORD,” declared that (probably at the very end of the great tribulation period) God “will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle” (Zechariah 14:1-2).