Locust
The locust are one of the few insects mentioned as a clean or allowed source of food. Locusts were fried in flour or honey, or were preserved by being dried. Locusts and wild honey a basic diet in the wilderness for John the Baptist. Locust are a used as an illustration of the judgment of the LORD God against a rebellious nation. Locusts are ravenous at all three stages of their development-a larval stage in which wingless locusts hop like fleas, a pupal stage in which the wings are encased in a sack and the locusts walk like ordinary insects, and the adult stage in which they fly. Adult locusts swarm in the air like clouds and cover the landscape where they alight, leaving it bared.
Locust Used for Food.
Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. (Leviticus 11:21–22).
Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6).
The Locust is Wise and Organized
There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in bands. (Proverbs 30:24, 27).
Locust are Ravenous and Numerous
For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 10:15).
For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as locust swarm for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number. (Judges 6:5).
And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude. (Judges 7:12).
He spoke, and locusts came, Young locusts without number. (Psalms 105:34).
There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off; It will eat you up like a locust. Make yourself many like the locust! Make yourself many as the many locusts! (Nahum 3:15).
Locust Destroy and Run
And your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; as the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them. (Isaiah 33:4).
The locust devoured your fig trees and olive trees. (Amos 4:9).
I will rebuke the devourer so it will not destroy your fruit (Malachi 3:11).
Locust Has Appearance of Horses prepared for battle
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. (Joel 2:4).
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat (a mountainous region of eastern Armenia, between the river Araxes and the lakes Van and Oroomiah, the site where Noah’s ark came to rest), Minni (a region in Armenia), and Ashchenaz (a northern people, perhaps of Bithynia); appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough young locust (early stage of development). (Jeremiah 51:27).
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. (Revelation 9:7).
Locust Brought by the Wind
So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. (Exodus 10:13).
And the LORD turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt. (Exodus 10:19).
Locust is One of the Plagues of Egypt
Else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into your coast:
And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remains unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field. And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, how long shall this man be a snare unto us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knows you not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, we will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD. And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so: go now that are men, and serve the LORD; for that you did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. (Exodus 10:4–15).
Locust as a Punishment for Sin
You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. (Deuteronomy 28:38).
Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. (Deuteronomy 28:42).
When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple. (1 Kings 8:37–38).
He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labor unto the locust. (Psalms 78:46).
I am gone like the shadow when it declines: I am tossed up and down as the locust. (Psalms 109:23).
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13–14).
Locust as Prophecy and Destructive Enemies
What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (Joel 1:4).
For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white. (Joel 1:6-7).
A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. With a noise like chariots over mountaintops they leap, like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another; every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down. They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief. (Joel 2:2-9).
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. (Joel 2:25).
There shall the fire devour you; the sword shall cut you off, it shall eat you up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoils, and flies away. Your crowned are as the locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. (Nahum 3:15-17).
They shall cut down her forest, said the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the locust swarm, and are innumerable. (Jeramiah 46:23).
The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, surely I will fill thee with men, as with young locust (early stage of development); and they shall lift up a shout against thee. (Jeramiah 51:14).
Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (Revelation 9:3).
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. (Revelation 9:7).
Cite Article Source
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “Locust Miscellaneous:.” Becker Bible Studies Library Feb 2015.< https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2387,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015, February) “Locust Miscellaneous:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2387,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015) “Locust Miscellaneous:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (February), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2387, (accessed).
