Matthew Poole and continuators on Joel 2:3

3 A fire devoureth before them , and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before them , and behind them a desolate wilderness , yea, and nothing shall escape them.

Either the heat of the Sun vehementer then usual, or the locusts, or Chaldeans and Babylonians resembled by locusts, as fire shall devour,

utterly consume and eat up

that people, ver. 2. let. k. l.

What is left behind them is as burnt with a flame, all that the locusts leave behind them is as that which the flame hath scor[illegible: 1 letter]ht, dry'd, and turn'd into Chark-coal; or all the Chaldeans and Babylonians leave behind them is (as is customary with the barbarous invaders) set on fire, and what they cannot eat or carry away, they destroy with fire.

'Tis every where most fruitful and pleasant, a Land where they have not yet come. This is exprest in that Proverbial speech, as the garden of Eden, see Isa. 51.3. Ezek. 36.35.

But where ever these locusts, or the armies they signifie come, all is turn'd into most desolate Wilderness.

Nothing that was for beauty and pleasure, nor any thing for necessity and support of life.

Marginal references: Gen. 2.8. and 13.10.