Exodus 10:12-15

10:12 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for ¹  the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows ²  in the ground, everything that the hail has left.” 10:13 So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord ³  brought ⁴  an east wind on the land all that day and all night. ⁵  The morning came, ⁶  and the east wind had brought up ⁷  the locusts! 10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ⁸  of Egypt. It was very severe; ⁹  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ¹⁰  10:15 They covered ¹¹  the surface ¹²  of all the ground, so that the ground became dark with them, ¹³  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.

Deuteronomy 28:38

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it.

Deuteronomy 28:42

28:42 Whirring locusts ¹⁴  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ¹⁵  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ¹⁶  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 8:1-2

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ¹⁷  I am giving ¹⁸  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ¹⁹  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ²⁰  8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ²¹  has brought you these forty years through the desert ²²  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ²³  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 7:13

7:13 He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, ²⁵  with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

Psalms 78:46

78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

the fruit of their labor to the locust.

Psalms 105:34

105:34 He ordered locusts to come, ²⁶ 

innumerable grasshoppers.

Amos 7:1

Symbolic Visions of Judgment

7:1 The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ²⁷  him making locusts just as the crops planted late ²⁸  were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest. ²⁹ )

Revelation 9:3-7

9:3 Then ³⁰  out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth, and they were given power ³¹  like that of the scorpions of the earth. 9:4 They ³²  were told ³³  not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people ³⁴  who did not have the seal of God on their ³⁵  forehead. 9:5 The locusts ³⁶  were not given permission ³⁷  to kill ³⁸  them, but only to torture ³⁹  them ⁴⁰  for five months, and their torture was like that ⁴¹  of a scorpion when it stings a person. ⁴²  9:6 In ⁴³  those days people ⁴⁴  will seek death, but ⁴⁵  will not be able to ⁴⁶  find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

9:7 Now ⁴⁷  the locusts looked like horses equipped for battle. On ⁴⁸  their heads were something like crowns similar to gold, ⁴⁹  and their faces looked like men’s ⁵⁰  faces.

[10:12]  ¹ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) is unexpected here. BDB 91 s.v. (the note at the end of the entry) says that in this case it can only be read as “with the locusts,” meaning that the locusts were thought to be implicit in Moses’ lifting up of his hand. However, BDB prefers to change the preposition to לְ (lamed).

[10:12]  ² tn The noun עֵשֶּׂב (’esev) normally would indicate cultivated grains, but in this context seems to indicate plants in general.

[10:13]  ³ tn The clause begins וַיהוָה (va’adonay [vayhvah], “Now Yahweh….”). In contrast to a normal sequence, this beginning focuses attention on Yahweh as the subject of the verb.

[10:13]  ⁴ tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) means “drive, conduct.” It is elsewhere used for driving sheep, leading armies, or leading in processions.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and all the night.”

[10:13]  ⁶ tn The text does not here use ordinary circumstantial clause constructions; rather, Heb “the morning was, and the east wind carried the locusts.” It clearly means “when it was morning,” but the style chosen gives a more abrupt beginning to the plague, as if the reader is in the experience – and at morning, the locusts are there!

[10:13]  ⁷ tn The verb here is a past perfect, indicting that the locusts had arrived before the day came.

[10:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “border.”

[10:14]  ⁹ 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.

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “after them.”

[10:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they covered.”

[10:15]  ¹² tn Heb “eye,” an unusual expression (see v. 5; Num 22:5, 11).

[10:15]  ¹³ 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.

[28:42]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:1]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[8:1]  ¹⁷ tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

[8:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

[8:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2]  ²² tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

[6:1]  ²³ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

[6:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

[7:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “will bless the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[105:34]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he spoke and locusts came.”

[7:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:1]  ²⁸ sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

[7:1]  ²⁹ tn Or “the mowings of the king.”

[9:3]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[9:3]  ³¹ tn See BDAG 352 s.v. ἐξουσία 2, “potential or resource to command, control, or govern, capability, might, power.”

[9:4]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:4]  ³³ tn The dative indirect object (αὐταῖς, autais) was converted into the subject (“they”) as this more closely approximates English usage. The following ἵ῞να (Jina) is taken as substantival, introducing a direct object clause. In this case, because it is reported speech, the ἵνα is similar to the declarative ὅτι (Joti).

[9:4]  ³⁴ tn Grk “men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here of both men and women.

[9:4]  ³⁵ tn The article τῶν (twn) has been translated as a possessive pronoun here (ExSyn 215).

[9:5]  ³⁶ tn Grk “It was not permitted to them”; the referent (the locusts) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ³⁷ tn The word “permission” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[9:5]  ³⁸ tn The two ἵνα (Jina) clauses of 9:5 are understood to be functioning as epexegetical or complementary clauses related to ἐδόθη (edoqh).

[9:5]  ³⁹ tn On this term BDAG 168 s.v. βασανισμός states, “1. infliction of severe suffering or pain associated with torture or torment, tormenting, torture Rv 9:5b. – 2. the severe pain experienced through torture, torment vs. 5a; 14:11; 18:10, 15; (w. πένθος) vs. 7.”

[9:5]  ⁴⁰ tn The pronoun “them” is not in the Greek text but is picked up from the previous clause.

[9:5]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “like the torture,” but this is redundant in contemporary English.

[9:5]  ⁴² tn Grk “a man”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in an individualized sense without being limited to the male gender.

[9:6]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here of both men and women.

[9:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[9:6]  ⁴⁶ tn The phrase “not be able to” was used in the translation to emphasize the strong negation (οὐ μή, ou mh) in the Greek text.

[9:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of the description of the locusts, which is somewhat parenthetical in the narrative.

[9:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:7]  ⁴⁹ tn The translation attempts to bring out the double uncertainty in this clause in the Greek text, involving both the form (ὡς στέφανοι, Jw" stefanoi, “like crowns”) and the material (ὅμοιοι χρυσῷ, {omoioi crusw, “similar to gold”).

[9:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “human faces.” The Greek term ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos) is often used in a generic sense, referring to both men and women. However, because “women’s hair” in the next clause suggests a possible gender distinction here, “men’s” was retained.