explanatory apposition to "the day of the Lord," "the day of darkness," etc. To this we may further add, that, by the last words, this judgment is represented as the most formidable, and the last by which Judea shall be visited; so that we cannot by any means think of a subsequent later day of the Lord. 2. Are the different names of the locusts designations of various species of locusts, or are these, beside the common name of the locusts, only poetical names, which denote the qualities coming into consideration? _Credner_ has attempted to prove the former. He maintains that Joel's description has to do with two generations of locusts,--the first belonging to the end of one year,--the second, to the beginning of the year following. The latter he thinks to be the offspring of the former. In accordance with this hypothesis, he explains the different names, גזם is, according to him, the migratory locust, which visits Palestine chiefly in autumn; ארבה, elsewhere the general name of locusts, here the young brood; ילק, the young locust in the last stage of its transformation, or between the third and fourth casting of the skin; חסיל, the perfect locust, proceeding from the last transformation, and, hence, as the brood proceeded from the חסיל ,גזם would be the same גזם. [Pg 305] It forms a general argument against this hypothesis, that, according to it, the prophet should enter so deeply and minutely into the natural history of locusts, that a Professor of that science might learn from him. There is nothing analogous to this, either in Scripture generally, or in the Prophets particularly. The difficulty, moreover, increases, when we assume--what has been already proved--that the description refers to the future. The religious impression which the prophet has, after all, solely in view, would not gain, but suffer by such a minute detail in the description of a future natural event,--especially such as a devastation by locusts. A closer examination proves that the whole explanation of the names of the locusts, upon which the hypothesis is built, is untenable. It appears, then, that the prophet knows of only one kind of locusts, which he divides into four hosts; and that, with the exception of ארבה, the names are not those of natural history, but poetical, and taken from the qualities of the locusts.