Exodus 10:1-20

8°. A Locust Swarm (Exodus 10:1 J; Exodus 10:12 a, Egypt, E; Exodus 10:13 b J; Exodus 10:14 a E; Exodus 10:14 b and rested to Exodus 10:15 a darkened, J; Exodus 10:15 b E to left; Exodus 10:15 c - Exodus 10:19 J; Exodus 10:20 E). The opening paragraph has been expanded in the Deuteronomic style (cf. Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 6:7 with Exodus 10:2). Christian instinct avoids such a conception as Yahweh mocking the Egyptians (so correctly Exodus 10:2 mg., cf. Psalms 2:4). The most notable description of a plague of locusts is in Joel (Joel 2*, cf. Joel in CB). They are not very common in Egypt; striking cases have been reported by modern travellers. It is a traveller who wrote, Nothing escapes them, from the leaves of the forest to the herbs on the plain. Morier reported from Persia, They were found in every corner, stuck to our clothes and infested our food. The mere threat alarmed the courtiers, and even Pharaoh tried a fresh concession, that the men only should go (Exodus 10:10); but Moses had issued the ultimatum that the whole nation must keep Yahweh's festival (Exodus 10:9). The mention of Moses-' s rod comes from E; and the references to the natural causes, the E. wind or sirocco bringing, the W. wind removing the locusts, are from J. When it is said (Exodus 10:15 a) that the land was darkened, it is meant that they formed a continuous dark layer all over the ground. In 1865 near Jaffa several miles were covered inches deep. When an army of locusts invades a locality, the end is usually that it is blown into the sea (as in Exodus 10:19) or the desert.