Exodus 10:4

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) To morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast.—Locusts, as already observed, are not indigenous to Egypt, but only occasional visitants. Consequently they always enter the country from some other, as Nubia, Abyssinia, Syria, or Arabia. On the quarter from which the present plague came, see the comment on Exodus 10:13.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-11 The plagues of Egypt show the sinfulness of sin. They warn the children of men not to strive with their Maker. Pharaoh had pretended to humble himself; but no account was made of it, for he was not sincere therein. The plague of locusts is threatened. This should be much worse than any of that kind which had ever been known. Pharaoh's attendants persuade him to come to terms with Moses. Hereupon Pharaoh will allow the men to go, falsely pretending that this was all they desired. He swears that they shall not remove their little ones. Satan does all he can to hinder those that serve God themselves, from bringing their children to serve him. He is a sworn enemy to early piety. Whatever would put us from engaging our children in God's service, we have reason to suspect Satan in it. Nor should the young forget that the Lord's counsel is, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; but Satan's counsel is, to keep children in a state of slavery to sin and to the world. Mark that the great foe of man wishes to retain him by the ties of affection, as Pharaoh would have taken hostages from the Israelites for their return, by holding their wives and children in captivity. Satan is willing to share our duty and our service with the Saviour, because the Saviour will not accept those terms.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The locusts - The locust is less common in Egypt than in many eastern countries, yet it is well known, and dreaded as the most terrible of scourges. They come generally from the western deserts, but sometimes from the east and the southeast. No less than nine names are given to the locust in the Bible, of which the word used here is the most common (ארבה 'arbeh); it signifies "multitudinous," and whenever it occurs reference is made to its terrible devastations.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. to-morrow will I bring the locusts—Moses was commissioned to renew the request, so often made and denied, with an assurance that an unfavorable answer would be followed on the morrow by an invasion of locusts. This species of insect resembles a large, spotted, red and black, double-winged grasshopper, about three inches or less in length, with the two hind legs working like hinged springs of immense strength and elasticity. Perhaps no more terrible scourge was ever brought on a land than those voracious insects, which fly in such countless numbers as to darken the land which they infest; and on whatever place they alight, they convert it into a waste and barren desert, stripping the ground of its verdure, the trees of their leaves and bark, and producing in a few hours a degree of desolation which it requires the lapse of years to repair.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go,.... He threatens him with the following plague, the plague of the locusts, which Pliny (x) calls "denrum irae pestis":

behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast; according to Bishop Usher (y) this was about the seventh day of the month Abib, that this plague was threatened, and on the morrow, which was the eighth day, it was brought; but Aben Ezra relates it as an opinion of Japhet an Hebrew writer, that there were many days between the plague of the hail, and the plague of the locusts, that there might be time for the grass and plants to spring out of the field; but this seems not necessary, for these locusts only ate of what were left of the hail, as in the following verse.

(x) Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29. (y) Annales Vet. Test. p. 21.

Geneva Study Bible

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. to-morrow] cf. Exodus 8:23, Exodus 9:5-6; Exodus 9:18.

locusts] A well-known plague in Palestine and neighbouring countries: see for descriptions both of their immense numbers, and of their ravages, the writer’s notes on Joel (in the Camb. Bible), pp. 37–39, 48–53, 87–91. They do not however seem to visit Egypt very frequently. Niebuhr (as cited by Kn.) witnessed at Cairo in January a great swarm of locusts blown up by a SW. wind from the Libyan desert: Lepsius (Letters, p. 104) describes one in March, coming up also from the SW., which covered the whole country far and near. Denon (Voyages dans la basse et la haute Égypte, 1807, i. 287) describes one brought up by the wind from the East, which eventually, when the wind changed, was driven back into the desert.

4–8 (J). The sequel,—and once, probably, the immediate sequel,—to Exodus 10:28-29 (J): see the note there.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - To-morrow. Again a warning is given, and a space of time interposed, during which the king may repent and submit himself, if he chooses. The locusts. The species intended is probably either the Aeridium peregrinum or the Oedipoda migratoria. Both are common in Arabia and Syria, and both are known in Egypt. They are said to be equally destructive. The Hebrew name, arbeh, points to the "multitudinous" character of the visitation. A traveller in Syria says - "It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects." (Ollivier, Voyage clans l'Empire Ottoman, vol. 2. p. 424.) Into thy coast - i.e. "across thy border, into thy territories." The locust is only an occasional visitant in Egypt, and seems always to arrive from some foreign country. Exodus 10:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

To punish this obstinate refusal, Jehovah would bring locusts in such dreadful swarms as Egypt had never known before, which would eat up all the plants left by the hail, and even fill the houses. "They will cover the eye of the earth." This expression, which is peculiar to the Pentateuch, and only occurs again in Exodus 10:15 and Numbers 22:5, Numbers 22:11, is based upon the ancient and truly poetic idea, that the earth, with its covering of plants, looks up to man. To substitute the rendering "surface" for the "eye," is to destroy the real meaning of the figure; "face" is better. It was in the swarms that actually hid the ground that the fearful character of the plague consisted, as the swarms of locusts consume everything green. "The residue of the escape" is still further explained as "that which remaineth unto you from the hail," viz., the spelt and wheat, and all the vegetables that were left (Exodus 10:12 and Exodus 10:15). For "all the trees that sprout" (Exodus 10:5), we find in Exodus 10:15, "all the tree-fruits and everything green upon the trees."