Exodus 10:4

The locusts. As further punishment upon the obstinate king God announced a plague of locusts more dreadful than any Egypt had known heretofore. Locusts, God’s “great army,” as they are called in Joel 2:25, have to the present day brought periodic calamity to countries of the Near East, generally every 10 or 15 years. Effective control is now possible through scientific methods, such as the use of flame, chemically treated trenches into which the locusts fall in droves, destruction of the eggs, and the use of arsenic, but such means did not become available until comparatively recent times. Formerly, the coming of the locusts was considered the most terrible of all judgments that could befall a country. Joel gives a vivid description of such a plague, saying, “A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness” (Joel 2:3). They destroy every trace of vegetation, including crops, vegetables, shrubs, and thistles. They even damage the bark of trees, the smaller branches being completely peeled and made white (see Joel 1:7—12). They arrive in great swarms, their noise in flight resembling that of rain or the crackle of fire in dry grass, and their numbers darken the sky (Joel 2:2, 3).