3-4. Until now, how have we applied the prophecy found at Joel 2:7-9?

³ Read Joel 2:7-9. Joel foretells that a plague of locusts will devastate the land of Israel. With teeth and jaws like those of lions, the greedy insects will devour everything in sight! (Joel 1:4, 6) For many years, we have applied that prophecy symbolically to the way in which Jehovah’s people, like an unstoppable swarm of locusts, engage in their preaching activity. We understood that this activity has devastating effects on the “land,” or the people who are under the control of the religious leaders.b

⁴ If we restricted ourselves to a reading of Joel 2:7-9, a case could be made for that explanation. However, when we consider the prophecy in its context, we see that a different understanding is appropriate. Let us examine four reasons why this is so.

11. What clues do Joel 1:6 and 2:1, 8, 11 give us about the identity of the locusts?

¹¹ A closer look at Joel’s prophecy in its context reveals that the prophet was predicting a military attack. (Joel 1:6; 2:1, 8, 11) Jehovah said that he would use his “great army” (Babylonian soldiers) to punish the disobedient Israelites. (Joel 2:25) The invading army is rightly called “the northerner” because the Babylonians would invade Israel from the north. (Joel 2:20) That army is likened to a well-organized swarm of locusts. Of them, Joel says: “Each [soldier] advances in his course. . . . Into the city they rush, on the wall they run. Onto the houses they climb, through the windows they enter like a thief.” (Joel 2:8, 9) Can you picture the scene? There are soldiers everywhere. There is nowhere to hide. No one can escape the sword of the Babylonians!

12. How was Joel’s prophecy about the locusts fulfilled?

¹² Like locusts, the Babylonians (or, Chaldeans) invaded the city of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. The Bible reports: “The king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword . . . , felt no compassion for young man or virgin, old or infirm. God gave everything into his hand. He burned down the house of the true God, tore down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its fortified towers with fire, and destroyed everything of value.” (2 Chron. 36:17, 19) When the Babylonians were finished with the land, onlookers could only say: “It is a wasteland without man and beast, and it has been handed over to the Chaldeans.”​—Jer. 32:43.