Joel 2:4

Myles Coverdale Bible

They are to loke vpon like bayrded horses, & runne like horse men.

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.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The shewe of him is as the shewe of horses, and like horsemen, 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.

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 out ye trompet in Sion, & crie vpo my holy hill, yt all soch as dwel in the londe, maye treble at it: for ye daie of the LORDE commeth, & is harde at honde: ² a darcke daye, a gloomynge daye, a cloudy daye, yee & a stormy daye, like as the mornynge spredeth out vpo the hilles: Namely, a great & mightie people: soch as haue not bene sens ye begynnynge, nether shal be after them for euermore. ³ Before him shal be a consumynge fyre, & behynde him a burnynge flame. The londe shal be as a garden of pleasure before him, but behinde him shal it be a very waist wildernesse, & there is no man, that shal escape him. ⁴ They are to loke vpon like bayrded horses, & runne like horse men. ⁵ They skyppe vp vpon ye hilles, as it were the sounde of charettes: as the flame of fyre that consumeth the strawe, and as a mightie people redy to the batell. ⁶ The folke shalbe afrayed of him, all faces shal be as blacke as a pot. ⁷ These shal rune like giauntes, & leape ouer the walles like men of warre. Euery ma in his goinge shal kepe his araie, & not go out of his Path. ⁸ There shal not one dryue another, but ech shal kepe his owne waye. They shal breake in at the wyndowes, & not be hurte: ⁹ They shal come into the cite, & runne vpon the walles: They shal clymme vp vpon the houses, & slyppe in at the wyndowes like a thefe. ¹⁰ The earth shal quake before him, yee the heauens shalbe moued: the Sonne & Moone shal be darckened, and the starres shal withdrawe their shyne.

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 ye begynnynge God created heauen & earth:

Genesis 1:4
And God sawe the light that it was good. Then God deuyded ye light from the darcknes,

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and sayde vnto them: Growe, and multiplie, and fyll the earth, and subdue it, & haue domynion ouer the fish of the see, and ouer the foules of the ayre, and ouer all the beastes that crepe vpo the earth.

Genesis 1:31
And God behelde all yt he had made, and lo, they were exceadinge good. Then of the euenynge and mornynge was made the sixte daye.

Genesis 2:1
Thus was heaue and earth fynished with all their hoost,

Genesis 2:2
and thus in the seuenth daye God ended his worke, which he had made, & rested in the seuenth daye from all his workes which he had made:

Genesis 5:1
This is the boke of the generacion of man, in the tyme whan God created man, and made him after the symilitude of God.

Genesis 10:1
This is the generacion of the childre of Noe, Sem, Ham, and Iaphet, & they begat children after the floude.

Genesis 11:10
These are ye generacions of Sem. Sem was an hundreth yeare olde, and begat Arphachsad two yeare after the floude,

Genesis 25:12
This is the generacion of Ismael Abrahams sonne, whom Agar Saras mayde the Egipcian bare vnto him.

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.