They Climb the Wall Like Warriors
4 Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. 6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. 7 They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. 8 One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks. 9 They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
Six verses of military description, and the thing being described keeps ranks better than any army could.
Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. The comparison is repeated rather than explained, and every following verse extends it: chariots leaping on mountain tops, fire crackling through stubble, a strong people drawn up for battle.
What the description keeps returning to is discipline. They run like mighty men and climb the wall like warriors; each marches in his own line and does not swerve; one does not jostle another; they burst through the defenses and do not break ranks. Four separate statements of the same fact, which is the most unnerving thing about a swarm — there is no commander, and the formation holds anyway.
Verse 9 brings them inside. They rush on the city, run on the wall, climb into the houses, and enter at the windows like thieves. The sequence follows a siege exactly, except that no siege ever ended by coming through the windows. Walls are irrelevant to this army, and the last comparison is to a burglar, which is the figure Scripture keeps for the day itself 1 Thessalonians 5:2.
settled What this mark means