Exodus 10:19

Exo 10:19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.

Ver. 19. A mighty strong west wind.] Rupertus calls the winds mundi scopas, the besoms wherewith God sweeps his great house of this world. Like as his spiritual house - the hearts of his people - he sweeps off all foul lusts, those hellish locusts, with that rushing mighty wind spoken of in Act 2:2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 10:19. An east wind brought the locusts, and now a west wind carried them off. Whatever point of the compass the wind is in, it is fulfilling God’s word, and turns about by his counsel; the wind blows where it listeth for us, but not where it listeth for him; he directeth it under the whole heaven.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The water seemed red, because the sand or gravel is red: the Hebrews called it the Sea of bulrushes.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 19. A mighty strong west wind] רוח ים ruach yam, literally the wind of the sea; the wind that blew from the Mediterranean Sea, which lay north-west of Egypt, which had the Red Sea on the east. Here again God works by natural means; he brought the locusts by the east wind, and took them away by the west or north-west wind, which carried them to the Red Sea where they were drowned.

The Red Sea] ים סוף yam suph, the weedy sea; so called, as some suppose, from the great quantity of alga or sea-weed which grows in it and about its shores. But Mr. Bruce, who has sailed the whole extent of it, declares that he never saw in it a weed of any kind; and supposes it has its name suph from the vast quantity of coral which grows in it, as trees and plants do on land. "One of these," he observes, "from a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in a nearly circular form measuring twenty-six feet diameter every way." - Travels, vol. ii., p. 138. In the Septuagint it is called θαλασσα ερυθρα, the Red Sea, from which version we have borrowed the name; and Mr. Bruce supposes that it had this name from Edom or Esau, whose territories extended to its coasts; for it is well known that the word אדם Edom in Hebrew signifies red or ruddy. The Red Sea, called also the Arabic Gulf, separates Arabia from Upper AEthiopia and part of Egypt. It is computed to be three hundred and fifty leagues in length from Suez to the Straits of Babelmandel, and is about forty leagues in breadth. It is not very tempestuous, and the winds usually blow from north to south, and from south to north, six months in the year; and, like the monsoons of India, invariably determine the seasons of sailing into or out of this sea. It is divided into two gulfs: that to the east called the Elanitic Gulf, from the city of Elana to the north end of it; and that to the west called the Heroopolitan Gulf, from the city of Heroopolis; the former of which belongs to Arabia, the latter to Egypt. The Heroopolitan Gulf is called by the Arabians Bahr el Kolzum, the sea of destruction, or of Clysmae, an ancient town in that quarter; and the Elanitic Gulf Bahr el Akaba, the sea of Akaba, a town situated on its most inland point.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) The Lord turned a mighty strong west wind . . . —As locusts come, so they commonly go, with a wind. They cannot fly far without one. It often happens that a wind blows them into the sea. Pallas says, speaking of Crimean locusts in the year 1799:—“Great numbers of them were carried [from the Crimea] by northerly winds into the sea, where they perished, and were afterwards washed on shore in heaps” (Travels, vol. ii., p. 424).

The Red sea.—Heb., the sea of weeds, or of rushes. The Red Sea probably acquired this name among the Hebrews from the fact that in the time of Moses its north-western recess communicated with a marshy tract, extending as far as the Bitter Lakes, and abounding in aquatic plants of a luxuriant growth. (Comp. Exo_2:3, where the same term designates the water-plants of the Nile.)

There remained not one locust . . . —Niebuhr says of locusts in Arabia:—“Souvent il en reste beaucoup après le départ général” (Description de l’ Arabie, p. 153). But, on the other hand, there are times when the whole swarm takes its departure at once. “A wind from the south-west,” says Morier, “which had brought them, so completely drove them forwards that not a vestige of them was to be seen two hours afterwards” (Second Journey, p. 98).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. turned, &c.] i.e. caused by a change a west wind to blow.

west wind] Heb. a sea-wind. The ‘west’ is regularly in Heb. the sea (Gen_12:8; Gen_13:14, &c.). The idiom must have formed itself in Palestine, where the ‘sea’ was on the west. It is a common fate of locust swarms to be driven away by the wind, and to perish in the sea. Cf. Joe_2:20, with the writer’s note (p. 60). Pliny (H.N. xi. 35) writes, ‘Gregatim sublatae vento in maria aut stagna decidunt.’ The swarm described by Denon (on v. 4) was driven back by a change of wind into the desert on the East.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,.... For as yet he had not brought all his judgments on him he designed to bring:

so that he would not let the children of Israel go: though he had promised to do it, and that he would never offend more in this way.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

West wind - Literally, “a sea wind,” a wind blowing from the sea on the northwest of Egypt.

Red sea - The Hebrew has the “Sea of Suph”: the exact meaning of which is disputed. Gesenius renders it “rush” or “seaweed;” but it is probably an Egyptian word. A sea-weed resembling wood is thrown up abundantly on the shores of the Red Sea. The origin of the name “Red” Sea is uncertain: (naturalists have connected it with the presence of red infusoria, Exo 7:17).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

West. Hebrew sea, (Mediterranean) to the north and west of Egypt. --- Red sea. Hebrew, "of suph," or green herbs, which abound there. It has also a reddish appearance in some places, from the coral branches of a saffron colour. It probably was called red from Edom, or Erythros, the son of Isaac. (Calmet) --- God drowned the locusts in this sea, by means of the wind, which often proves the destruction of those animals. (Pliny, Natural History xi. 29.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

A mighty strong west wind; Heb. a wind of the sea, i.e. coming from the sea, called there the great sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, from whence came the north-west wind, which did blow the locusts directly into the Red Sea.

Cast them, as the Hebrew word signifies, with a great noise, and with great force, so as they should never rise again to molest them.

The Red Sea; Heb. the sea of bulrushes, so called from the great number of bulrushes near its shore; or, the sea of bounds or limits, q.d. the narrow sea, whereas they could see no bounds nor shore beyond the Mediterranean Sea. It was called the Arabian Gulf, and by others the Red Sea, either from its red sand, or rather from Esau, called also Edom, which signifies red, Gen 25:30, from whom as the adjoining country was called Edom, or red, so this was called the Red Sea.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. A mighty strong west wind — Literally, wind of the sea, that is, the Mediterranean, which is west from Palestine, but northwest from the Egyptian Delta, which is the scene of this history. This wind would sweep the locusts into the Red Sea.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind. Literally, "a very strong sea-windi.e. one which blew from the Mediterranean, and which might, therefore, so far, be north, north-west, or north-east. As it blew the locusts into the "Sea of Weeds," i.e. the Red Sea, it must have been actually a north-west wind, and so passing obliquely over Egypt, have carried the locusts in a south-easterly direction. Cast them into the Red Sea. Literally, "the Sea of Weeds." No commentater doubts that the Red Sea is here meant. It "seems to have received its Hebrew appellation, Yam Suph, "Sea of Weeds," either from the quantity of sea-weed which it throws up, or, more probably, from the fact that anciently its north-western recess was connected with a marshy tract extending from the present head of the Gulf of Suez nearly to the Bitter Lakes, in which grew abundant weeds and water-plants. There remained not one locust. The sudden and entire departure of locusts is as remarkable as their coming. "At the hour of prime," says one writer, "they began to depart, and at midday there was not one remaining.", "A wind from the south-west," says another, "which had brought them, so completely drove them forwards that not a vestige of them was to be seen two hours afterwards" (Morier, "Second Journey," p. 98).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An east-wind brought the locusts and now a west-wind carried them off. Whatever point of the compass the wind is in, it is fulfilling God's word, and turns about by his counsel; the wind blows where it listeth for us, but not where it listeth for him; he directeth it under the whole heaven.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

picked up the locusts

"moved the locusts upwards"

Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart

Here "heart" refers to Pharaoh. His stubborn attitude is spoken of as if his heart was hard. See how you translated this phrase in Exodus 9:12. AT: "caused Pharaoh to became more defiant" (See: Synecdoche and Metaphor)

translationWords

Sea of Reeds

heart

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

רוח ים is A WEST WIND.

ימה סוף INTO THE RED SEA — I say that the Red Sea was, as to part of it, in the west opposite the whole southern side of Palestine, and was also eastward of the Land of Israel; therefore a west wind blew the locusts into the Red Sea which was in the opposite direction to the west of Egypt. Thus do we find mentioned regarding the boundaries of Palestine that it (the Red Sea) faces the east of Palestine, since it states, (Exodus 23:31) “[And I will set thy boundaries] from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines”, which means from east to west since the sea of the Philistines was in the west, as it is said of the Philistines, (Zephaniah 2:5) “the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites (the Philistines)”.

לא נשאר ארבה אחד THERE REMAINED NOT ONE LOCUST — not even those which they had salted — for they had salted some of them (Exodus Rabbah 13:7).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.