Exodus 10:14-15

10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ¹  of Egypt. It was very severe; ²  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ³  10:15 They covered ⁴  the surface ⁵  of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, ⁶  and they ate all the vegetation of the ground and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green remained on the trees or on anything that grew in the fields throughout the whole land of Egypt.

Exodus 9:24

9:24 Hail fell ⁷  and fire mingled ⁸  with the hail; the hail was so severe ⁹  that there had not been any like it ¹⁰  in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

Exodus 11:6

11:6 There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ¹¹  nor ever will be again. ¹² 

Joel 2:2

2:2 It will be ¹³  a day of dreadful darkness, ¹⁴ 

a day of foreboding storm clouds, ¹⁵ 

like blackness ¹⁶  spread over the mountains.

It is a huge and powerful army ¹⁷  –

there has never been anything like it ever before,

and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come! ¹⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “border.”

² tn This is an interpretive translation. The clause simply has כָּבֵד מְאֹד (kaved mÿ’od), the stative verb with the adverb – “it was very heavy.” The description prepares for the following statement about the uniqueness of this locust infestation.

³ tn Heb “after them.”

⁴ tn Heb “and they covered.”

⁵ tn Heb “eye,” an unusual expression (see v. 5; Num 22:5, 11).

⁶ tn The verb is וַתֶּחְשַׁךְ (vattekhshakh, “and it became dark”). The idea is that the ground had the color of the swarms of locusts that covered it.

⁷ tn The verb is the common preterite וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), which is normally translated “and there was” if it is translated at all. The verb הָיָה (hayah), however, can mean “be, become, befall, fall, fall out, happen.” Here it could be simply translated “there was hail,” but the active “hail fell” fits the point of the sequence better.

⁸ tn The form מִתְלַקַּחַת (mitlaqqakhat) is a Hitpael participle; the clause reads, “and fire taking hold of itself in the midst of the hail.” This probably refers to lightning flashing back and forth. See also Ezek 1:4. God created a great storm with flashing fire connected to it.

⁹ tn Heb “very heavy” or “very severe.” The subject “the hail” is implied.

¹⁰ tn A literal reading of the clause would be “which there was not like it in all the land of Egypt.” The relative pronoun must be joined to the resumptive pronoun: “which like it (like which) there had not been.”

¹¹ tn Heb “which like it there has never been.”

¹² tn Heb “and like it it will not add.”

¹³ tn The phrase “It will be” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style.

¹⁴ tn Heb “darkness and gloom.” These two terms probably form a hendiadys here. This picture recalls the imagery of the supernatural darkness in Egypt during the judgments of the exodus (Exod 10:22). These terms are also frequently used as figures (metonymy of association) for calamity and divine judgment (Isa 8:22; 59:9; Jer 23:12; Zeph 1:15). Darkness is often a figure (metonymy of association) for death, dread, distress and judgment (BDB 365 s.v. חשֶׁךְ 3).

¹⁵ tn Heb “a day of cloud and darkness.”

¹⁶ tc The present translation here follows the proposed reading שְׁחֹר (shÿkhor, “blackness”) rather than the MT שַׁחַר (shakhar, “morning”). The change affects only the vocalization; the Hebrew consonants remain unchanged. Here the context calls for a word describing darkness. The idea of morning or dawn speaks instead of approaching light, which does not seem to fit here. The other words in the verse (e.g., “darkness,” “gloominess,” “cloud,” “heavy overcast”) all emphasize the negative aspects of the matter at hand and lead the reader to expect a word like “blackness” rather than “dawn.” However, NIrV paraphrases the MT nicely: “A huge army of locusts is coming. They will spread across the mountains like the sun when it rises.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “A huge and powerful people”; KJV, ASV “a great people and a strong.” Many interpreters understand Joel 2 to describe an invasion of human armies, either in past history (e.g., the Babylonian invasion of Palestine in the sixth century b.c.) or in an eschatological setting. More probably, however, the language of this chapter referring to “people” and “armies” is a hypocatastic description of the locusts of chapter one. Cf. TEV “The great army of locusts advances like darkness.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “it will not be repeated for years of generation and generation.”