1 Kings 8:37

8:37 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust ¹  invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, ²  or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

Amos 4:9

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ³  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ⁴  devouring your orchards, ⁵  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Haggai 2:17

2:17 I struck all the products of your labor ⁶  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ⁷  says the Lord.

[8:37]  ¹ tn Actually two Hebrew terms appear here, both of which are usually taken as referring to locusts. Perhaps different stages of growth or different varieties are in view.

[8:37]  ² tn Heb “in the land, his gates.”

[4:9]  ³ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ⁴ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Or “gardens.”

[2:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”

[2:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the Lord. Cf. KJV and many English versions “yet ye turned not to me,” understanding the phrase to refer to the people’s repentance rather than their failure to bring offerings.