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Summary
- Locusts in the Bible are a disaster, a diet and an army — and the subject of one of the most generous sentences in the prophets.
- Desert locusts change form when crowded and swarm. A swarm can cover hundreds of square kilometres and eat in a day what would feed tens of thousands. There is no defence.
- Exodus 10:15 records that nothing green remained, and Pharaoh’s own officials had seen it coming before he did.
- Joel 2:25 promises repayment not of the harvest but of the years — the growing season and the recovery after it — addressed to people just told the disaster was deserved.
- Locusts are the only insects the law permits (Leviticus 11:22), which is why John the Baptist’s diet is poor rather than eccentric, and Proverbs 30:27 praises them for advancing in ranks without a king.
Bibliography (Click to show)
Sources: Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Exodus 10:7, 15; Joel 1:2-4; 2:25; Leviticus 11:22; Mark 1:6; Proverbs 30:27). The density-dependent phase change of the desert locust, and the scale and consumption of swarms, follow standard entomological and FAO descriptions.
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