Chapter Ten
The Eighth Plague: Locusts
10:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
God announces another purpose for the plagues, not only will these signs and wonders establish the God of the Hebrews as the all-powerful God for the Egyptians and all of the world’s nations to see, but He also says that the plagues are to demonstrate to the many generations of Israelites to come that YHWH is indeed the one and only true God. The statement “that you may know that I am the LORD,” or similar, will be often and regularly repeated in Scripture (for example in Exodus alone, see 7:17; 14:4, 18; 16:12).
10:3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. 4 For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, 5 and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, 6 and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’ ” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Moses identifies the real cause of Pharaoh’s sin, his lack of humility, especially before God. Even though Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by God, Pharaoh was free to choose and seek repentance at any time.
Moses did not need to tell Pharaoh about how devastating locusts could be, they have been (and still are) an “enemy” of Egypt. These insects can devastate a vast number of plants and crops in a very short period of time. The National Geographic magazine reports that a typical desert swarm of 40-80 million locusts can be 460 square miles in size. Each locust can eat its weight in a single day, which would mean that a swarm could eat as much as 423 million pounds of plants every day.[1]
The numbers of locusts in this plague will be so great that the Egyptians will not be able to see the land below them. Plus, anything that survived and was untouched from the previous plague of hail (such as the wheat and emmer crops), will now be eaten.
Most people will never witness this type of devastation, once during an expedition to South Africa, Lord James Bryce (1838-1922 AD) encountered a swarm of locusts, this is what he wrote about the experience:
It is a strange sight, beautiful if you can forget the destruction it brings with it. The whole air, to twelve or even eighteen feet above the ground, is filled with the insects, reddish brown in body, with bright gauzy wings. When the sun's rays catch them it is like the sea sparkling with light. When you see them against a cloud they are like the dense flakes of a driving snow-storm. You feel as if you had never before realized immensity in number. Vast crowds of men gathered at a festival, countless tree-tops rising along the slope of a forest ridge, the chimneys of London houses from the top of St. Paul's,—all are as nothing to the myriads of insects that blot out the sun above and cover the ground beneath and fill the air whichever way one looks. The breeze carries them swiftly past, but they come on in fresh clouds, a host of which there is no end, each of them a harmless creature which you can catch and crush in your hand, but appalling in their power of collective devastation.[2]
Moses informs them that the locusts will fill their houses, and further warns that this plague will not be like anything they have ever experienced before. Then, without delay, they left Pharaoh.
10:7 Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
This is the first time Pharaoh’s servants speak up, they may have been afraid to say anything, until now. Seeing the gradual destruction of their nation (even though their hearts were hardened too, see verse one), they apparently thought “enough is enough,” and pleaded with Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Then they make a daring statement, “Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?” They are essentially asking Pharaoh, “can’t you see what’s going on?” Bold words coming from servants.
10:8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. But which ones are to go?” 9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.” 10 But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. 11 No! Go, the men among you, and serve the LORD, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
After listening to his servants, Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron to return. When they arrive, Pharaoh grants permission for the Israelites to go and serve their God, YHWH. But then he asks who will be going. Moses replies that everyone will be going, including their children and animals (for sacrifices and food). Pharaoh agrees to let the men go but will not allow them to take their children as he believes that Moses has an alternate evil agenda. Once he made that proclamation, Pharaoh had Moses and Aaron forcibly removed from his presence.
10:12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 15 They covered the face of the whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
God instructs Moses to stretch out his hand over the land of Egypt to begin the next plague. When he stretched out his staff, God brought an east wind upon the land all that day and that night. Moses was not being disobedient by stretching out his staff instead of just his hand, that portion of the text is considered to be using a literary device known as an ellipsis (an intentional absence of a word). In the morning the east wind brought the locusts. Just as Moses warned, the swarm was greater than anything experienced before. The text also adds that a swarm like this will never occur in the future (obviously information provided by God, as He alone knows the future).
The locusts covered the land and ate all the plants and fruit trees. Everything was consumed as no green thing remained. All plants were thoroughly destroyed in all of Egypt.
10:16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. 17 Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.” 18 So he went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD. 19 And the LORD turned the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt. 20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.
Pharaoh quickly calls for Moses and Aaron and confesses to them that he has sinned against God and against them and asks to be forgiven. “Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me.” (Exodus 10:17, NIV) After leaving Pharaoh, Moses once again interceded for him, and YHWH drove all the locusts out of Egypt and then into the Red Sea using a west wind.
This is the first appearance of the Hebrew phrase, “Yām’·mā(h) sûp,”[3] translated here as the Red Sea, in Hebrew it means literally the ‘sea’ of ‘reeds’ (or weeds, same word was used to describe the location where the basket containing Moses was placed). Probably the Egyptian name for the body of water. The name “Red Sea” came much later in history, which is used consistently to describe the 1,450-mile-long extension of the Indian Ocean, east of Egypt by most English Bibles (the name was updated but the location remains the same).
Considerations
In the book of Revelation, we see another plague of locusts (see Revelation 9:1-11), but these come out of a bottomless pit (possibly Hades).[4] Interestingly, they are described as having a king (see Revelation 9:11), however, in the book of Proverbs we read, “the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank” (Proverbs 30:27), indicating that the swarm of locusts found in Revelation 9 are, indeed, not ordinary insects, but supernatural pests.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
The ninth plague proceeds without any warning. God has Moses stretch out his hand toward heaven, which will then bring darkness over the land, not just the absence of light, but a presence that could be felt.
So, Moses did as he was instructed and stretched out his hand toward heaven and it became pitch (Hebrew word ‘ǎpē·lā(h)’,[5] absolutely no light) darkness (Hebrew word ‘ḥō·šěḵ’,[6] the standard word for darkness). However, this darkness was more than the blockage of the sun. No light source worked for three days in Egypt, except where the Israelites were.
If this plague did indeed just block the light of the sun, moon, and the stars, it could be considered a direct assault against the various Egyptian deities, but in reality, it was much more. The Egyptians may not have been aware of what we now call the laws of physics, but to stop all light in one location and allow light to exist in another, is well beyond anything we can do with technology today.
Going back to the concept of darkness being felt, sometimes when we humans are in total darkness, our imaginations can certainly get the best of us, perhaps it was nothing more than the unknown that they felt. In his first epistle, the apostle John wrote, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5b) If those three days of darkness represented the absence of God, what were they feeling? Could it be those things that choose to be in the dark (see Isaiah 5:20; John 3:19; Romans 13:12; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 5:6-14; 6:12; 1 Peter 2:9)?
10:24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.” 27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” 29 Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”
As the result of the supernatural darkness, Pharaoh again calls Moses to inform him that they can now leave Egypt to serve YHWH. But once again he tries to compromise, saying they could bring their children, but not their animals. Moses informs Pharaoh that would be unacceptable as they need to bring their flocks and herds with them since they will not know which animals and how many they will need until they get out of Egypt.
Pharaoh becomes suspicious and is convinced that Moses still does not plan on returning, so he again refuses to let them go. He then tells Moses to never come back, as he will not only not listen, but he will also have Moses killed. Then Moses tells him, “As you say I will not see your face again,” alluding to a tenth and final plague.
Considerations
Many equate the absence of God to be the definition of hell. Some believe that experiencing absolute darkness for those three days would have been much like hell. But in reality, hell could be the absence of all things, not just God. In his epistle to the church in Colossae, the apostle Paul wrote this about Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17) If Jesus is holding all things together, one question remains, if God is gone will He be still holding things together? Hell could easily be the absence of everything we know.
⇐Previous Chapter (Introduction/Index) Next Chapter⇒
[1] Locusts. (2018, September 24). Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/locusts/
[2] Bryce, James (November, 1898). Impressions of South Africa (p. 229). London, MacMillan and Co., Ltd.
[3] Strong’s Hebrew 3220 and 5488.
[4] See Considerations under Genesis 25:7-11.
[5] Strong’s Hebrew 653.
[6] Strong’s Hebrew 2822.