And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army,.... Either the army of the locusts, whom Pliny calls "pestis deorum", "the plague of the gods"; and the Arabians frequently style them the army of God.
It is a tradition of theirs that locusts fell into the hands of Mahomet, with this inscription on their backs and wings,"we are the army of the most high God;''and because they were, for that reason Mahomet made a law that none should kill them; See Gill on "Re 9:3".
These creatures are certainly at his beck and command; he can "command the locust to devour the land", 2Ch 7:13; which may be meant by his uttering his voice here; though Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the Lord's giving notice of this judgment by his prophets before it fame: or this may design the army of the Assyrians or Chaldeans, of which the locusts were all emblem, and which were of the Lord's mustering together, and was at his command; and who is here represented as a General at the head of his army, making a speech to them to animate and encourage them to the battle, and to give them the word of command when to begin the onset:for his camp [is] very great; or numerous, as both the locusts and Chaldeans were:for [he is] strong that executeth his word; or "strong is it"; namely, the camp and army of the locusts; which, though feeble in themselves, separately considered; yet being in such large bodies, and the Lord at the head of them, and strengthened by him, were able to fulfil his word; which he can make the least and meanest of his creatures do: or the Assyrian or Chaldean army, which was both numerous and mighty: which the Targum may refer unto, paraphrasing the words,"for strong are the executors of his word:''for the day of the Lord [is] great and very terrible, and who can abide it?
the day appointed by the Lord to take vengeance on the Jews for sin; and this, being the day of his wrath, is very dreadful and intolerable; so any season may be called, in which God remarkably pours down his wrath on men of their sins; see Re 6:17.
Such was the time of Jerusalem's destruction, both by the Chaldeans and Romans. Ibid. (Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29.