Joel 2:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

A day of darkness and of gloominess; metaphorically taken for a time of exceeding great troubles and calamities, according to the style of the Scriptures, which express prosperity by the metaphor of light, and adversity by darkness. which certainly is intended here; and the synonymous terms are here multiplied, to intimate the extremity and length of these troubles. And this passage may well allude to the day of judgment, and the calamities which shall precede that day. Thick darkness does undoubtedly imply, as the gradual approach, so the dismal effect of God's judgments and the Jews miseries. See this word used 2 Samuel 22:10, with 12-16 Psa 18:9,11. It was such terror with which God gave the law, and in such he will punish the transgressors of his law. As the morning spread upon the mountains; as the morning spreads itself suddenly over all the hemisphere, and as it first spreads itself upon the high mountains, so should the approaching calamities overtake this people. A great people: this seems more directly to intend the Babylonians rather than locusts, yet both are numerous, as the word imports, Heb.: see Joel 1:6. And a strong; bold to attempt, and mighty in strength to execute; both true of Assyrians or Babylonians, or the locusts. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more: locusts, emblem of the warlike nations, and the spoil done by both, are here described the greatest that ever yet were known; and of the Assyrian or Babylonian spoil made in Judea, the history doth ascertain this. Even to the years of many generations; if ever the like be, it shall not be in many ages to come.