Joel 2:4

Bishop's Bible

The shewe of him is as the shewe of horses, and like horsemen, so shall they runne.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Their appearance is like that of horses,and they gallop like war horses.

Hebrew Names Version
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, And as horsemen, so do they run.

King James Version
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

English Standard Version
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.

New American Standard Bible
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run.

New Century Version
They look like horses, and they run like war horses.

Amplified Bible
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, And they run like war horses.

Geneva Bible (1587)
The beholding of him is like the sight of horses, & like the horsemen, so shal they runne.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like war horses, so they run.

Legacy Standard Bible
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;And like war horses, so they run.

Berean Standard Bible
Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds.

Contemporary English Version
They look like horses and charge like cavalry.

Complete Jewish Bible
They look like horses, and like cavalry they charge.

Darby Translation
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so they run.

Easy-to-Read Version
They look like horses. They run like war horses.

George Lamsa Translation
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and like horsemen so they run;

Good News Translation
They look like horses; they run like war-horses.

Lexham English Bible
Like the appearance of horses is their appearance, and like horsemen they run;

Literal Translation
Their appearance is like horses; and as horsemen, so they run.

American Standard Version
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run.

Bible in Basic English
Their form is like the form of horses, and they are running like war-horses.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run.

King James Version (1611)
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horse men, so shall they runne.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Their appearance is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they pursue.

English Revised Version
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run.

World English Bible
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, And as horsemen, so do they run.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The lokyng of hem schal be as the lokyng of horsis, and as horse men so thei schulen renne.

Update Bible Version
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so they run.

Webster's Bible Translation
The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

New English Translation
They look like horses; they charge ahead like war horses.

New King James Version
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.

New Living Translation
They look like horses; they charge forward like warhorses.

New Life Bible
They look like horses. They run like war horses.

New Revised Standard
They have the appearance of horses, and like war-horses they charge.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
As the appearance of horses, is his appearance, and, as war-horses, so, shall they run:

Douay-Rheims Bible
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.

Revised Standard Version
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.

Young's Literal Translation
As the appearance of horses [is] its appearance, And as horsemen, so they run.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They are to loke vpon like bayrded horses, & runne like horse men.

THE MESSAGE
The locust army seems all horses— galloping horses, an army of horses. It sounds like thunder leaping on mountain ridges, Or like the roar of wildfire through grass and brush, Or like an invincible army shouting for blood, ready to fight, straining at the bit. At the sight of this army, the people panic, faces white with terror.

Contextual Overview

¹ Blowe vp a trumpet in Sion, and showte in my holy hyll, let all the inhabitauntes of the earth tremble: for the day of the Lorde is come, for it is nye at hande. ² A darke and glomie day, a cloudie and blacke day: as the mornyng is spread ouer the mountaynes [so is this] populus & strong people, like it there was none from the beginning, nor shalbe herafter for euermore. ³ Before him is a deuouryng fire, and behynde him a burnyng flambe: the lande is as a pleasaunt garden before him, and behinde him a waste desert, yea and nothyng shall escape him. ⁴ The shewe of him is as the shewe of horses, and like horsemen, so shall they runne. ⁵ Lyke the noyse of charrettes vpon the toppes of the mountaynes they shall skip, like the noyse of a flamyng fire deuouryng the stubble, [and] as a strong people prepared to battayle. ⁶ Before his face shall the people tremble, the countenaunce of all folkes shall waxe [blacke] as a pot. ⁷ They shall runne like strong men, and climbe the walles like men of warre: & euery one shall march on in his way, and they shal not linger in their pathes. ⁸ No man shall thrust another, but euery one shall walke in his path: and if they shall fall on the sworde, they shall not be wounded. ⁹ They shall runne to and fro in the citie, they shall runne vp & downe vpon the wall, they shall climbe into the houses, they shall enter in at the windowes like a theefe. ¹⁰ The earth shall quake before him, the heauens shall tremble, the sunne and the moone shalbe darke, and the starres shall withdrawe their shinyng.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Revelation 9:7

Reciprocal: Isaiah 13:4 - like as Jeremiah 51:14 - as with

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginnyng GOD created ye heauen and the earth.

Genesis 1:4
And God sawe the lyght that it was good: and God deuided the lyght from the darknes.

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God sayde vnto them: be fruitefull, & multiplie, and replenishe the earth, & subdue it, and haue dominion of the fisshe of the sea, and foule of the ayre, & of euery lyuing thing that moueth vpon the earth.

Genesis 1:31
And God sawe euery thyng that he had made: and beholde, it was exceedyng good. And the euenyng & the mornyng were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1
The heauens also & the earth were finisshed, & all the hoast of them.

Genesis 2:2
And in the seuenth day God ended his worke whiche he had made. And the seueth day he rested from all his worke which he had made.

Genesis 5:1
This is the booke of the generations of Ada. In the day that God created man, in the lykenesse of God made he hym.

Genesis 10:1
These are the generations of the sonnes of Noah, Sem, Ham, and Iapheth: and vnto them were chyldren borne after the fludde.

Genesis 11:10
These are the generations of Sem: Sem was an hundreth yere old, and begat Arphaxad two yeres after the flood.

Genesis 25:12
These are the generations of Ismael Abrahams sonne, whiche Hagar the Egyptian Saraes handmayde bare vnto Abraham.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The appearance of them [is] as the appearance of horses,.... in their running, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; they came with, as much swiftness and eagerness, with as much fierceness and courage, as horses rush into the battle. Bochart h has shown, from various writers, that the head of a locust is in shape like that of a horse; and Theodoret on the text observes, that whoever thoroughly examines the head of a locust will easily perceive that it is very like the head of a horse; see Revelation 9:7. The Chaldeans are often represented as strong and mighty, fierce and furious, and riding on horses exceeding swift, Jeremiah 4:13;

and as horsemen, so shall they run; with great agility and swiftness. The particle "as" is observed by some, against those interpreters that apply this wholly to the enemies of the Jews, and not the locusts; and it seems indeed best to favour them; but Theodoret observes, that the "as" here may be taken, not as a note of similitude, but as used for the increase and vehemency of the expression.

h Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 5. p. 474, 475.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The appearance of them, is as the appearance of horses - “If you carefully consider the head of the locust,” says Theodoret, a Bishop in Syria, “you will find it exceedingly like that of a horse.” Whence the Arabs, of old and to this day , say; “In the locust, slight as it is, is the nature of ten of the larger animals, the face of a horse, the eyes of an elephant, the neck of abull, the horns of a deer, the chest of a lion, the belly of a scorpion, the wings of an eagle, the thighs of a camel, the feet of an ostrich, the tail of a serpent.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. The appearance of horses — The head of the locust is remarkably like that of the horse; and so Ray on Insects describes them: Caput oblongum, equi instar, prona spectans - "They have an oblong head, like to that of a horse, bending downward." On this account the Italians call them cavaletta, cavalry. Bochart remarks, from an Arabic writer, that the locusts resemble ten different kinds of animals:

1. The HORSE in its head.

2. The ELEPHANT in its eyes.

3. The BULL in its neck.

4. The STAG in its horns.

5. The LION in its breast.

6. The SCORPION in its belly.

7. The EAGLE in its wings.

8. The CAMEL in its thighs.

9. The OSTRICH in its feet. And

10. The SERPENT in its tail.

Vid. Hieroz., vol. ii., p. 475, edit. 1692.

But its most prominent resemblance is to the horse, which the prophet mentions; and which the Arabic writer puts in the first place, as being the chief.