Psalms 105:34

Psa 105:34 He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,

Ver. 34. He spake, and the locusts came] These are called God’s great army, and their terrible invasion is graphically described, Joe 2:3-5, &c.

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.

34. (Psa 105:34) He said, and the arbeh came, and the yelek, and (that) without number. The two Hebrew words, here retained, denote varieties of the locust, and have no equivalents in English. See above, on Psa 78:46, where the first word here stands second, and the place of the other is supplied by hasil, another distinctive term of the same kind. Without number, literally there is no number. See the same expression, Psa 104:25.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He showeth that all creatures are armed against man when God is his enemy, as at his commandment the grasshoppers destroyed the land.

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

34. He spake, and the grasshopper came This calamity, which was brought upon the fields, could not be attributed to Fortune; for the grasshoppers made their appearance suddenly and in countless multitudes, so that they covered all the land of Egypt. The miracle was very evident from the word spoken, by which it was introduced. Its being announced as to happen, removed all doubt of its being the work of the Most High. Accordingly, it is expressly said, that grasshoppers and caterpillars rushed in at the commandment of God, as if soldiers should run to battle at the sound of the trumpet. Whenever these insects molest us and destroy the fruits of the earth, they are assuredly the scourges of God, but it is here intended to point out an extraordinary work of his hand. In fine, the prophet recites the last miracle, which was wrought by the angel on the night previous to the departure of the people, when he slew all the first-born throughout Egypt. I only take a hasty and passing glance at this history, as I have, in like manner, done of the other facts preceding, because they have been more copiously treated elsewhere, and at this time it is sufficient for us to know the design of the sacred writer. He, however, amplifies this display of the Divine power by a repetition, declaring that the first-born and the flower of their strength were destroyed Some translate, but unhappily, The beginning of their sorrow. As man’s strength shows itself in generation, the Hebrews term the first-begotten the beginning of strength, as we have explained on Genesis 49:3, —

“Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(34) Caterpillars.—To the locust, ‘aarbeh, alone mentioned in Exodus, the psalmist adds, as a poetical synonym to suit his parallelism, caterpillar (yelek), a word occurring in Joe_1:4; Joe_2:25; Nah_3:15; Jer_51:14; Jer_51:27. By derivation the word means “licker” (comp. Num_22:4), and is possibly used in a wide or general sense for insects of the locust kind. (See Bible Educator, IV. 294.)

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

34, 35. The eighth plague, Exo_10:1 ff.; Psa_78:46. The Heb. word yĕlĕq, R.V. cankerworm, as A.V. in Joe_1:4, is not used in Exodus. It probably denotes the locust in its larva state.

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.

He spake, and the locusts came,.... A great army of them, and covered the land, that it was even darkened by them; and were such as had never been seen before, or ever were since; this is the eighth plague, Exo 10:12, with these compare the locusts in Rev 9:3.

And caterpillars, and that without number; of these no mention is made in Exodus; they seem to be one of the kinds of locusts, or a different word is here used for the same, and so Kimchi interprets it; some render it the white locust; it has its name from licking up the herbs and grass of the field; as the other name for the locust seems to be taken from its great abundance and increase.

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

Ver. 34. Locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number. In this country, and in all the dominions of Prete Janni, is a very great and horrible plague, which is an innumerable company of locusts, which eat and consume all the corn and trees; and the number of them is so great, as it is incredible; and with their multitude they cover the earth and fill the air in such wise, that it is a hard matter to be able to see the sun...We travelled five days journey through places wholly waste and destroyed, wherein millet had been sown, which had stalks as great as those we set in our vineyards, and we saw them all broken and beaten down as if a tempest had been there; and this the locusts did. The trees were without leaves, and the bark of them was all devoured; and no grass was there to be seen, for they had eaten up all things; and if we had not been warned and advised to carry victual with us, we and our cattle had perished. This country was all covered with locusts without wings; and they told us these were the seed of them which had eaten up all, and that as soon as their wings were grown they would seek after the old ones. The number of them was so great, that I shall not speak of it, because I shall not be believed: but this! will say, that I saw men, women, and children sit as forlorn and dead among the locusts. Samuel Purchas, 1577-1628.

Ver. 34. Locusts and caterpillars. God did not bring the same plague twice; but when there was occasion for another, it was still a new one; for he has many arrows in his quiver. Matthew Henry.

Ver. 34. Without number. A swarm of locusts, which was observed in India in 1825, occupied a space of forty English square miles, contained at least forty millions of locusts in one line, and cast a long shadow on the earth. And Major Moore thus describes an immense army of these animals which ravaged the Mahratta country: "The column they composed extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it when on the wing, that like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object." Brown, in his travels in Africa, states that an area of nearly two thousand square miles was literally covered by them; and Kirby and Spence mention that a column of them was so immense, that they took four hours to fly over the spot where the observer stood. M. Kalisch.

Ver. 34. Came...and that without number.

Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud

Of congregated myriads number less;

The rushing of whose wings was as the sound

Of some broad river, headlong in its course,

Plunged from a mountain summit; or the roar

Of a wild ocean in the autumnal storm,

Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks,

Onward they came, the winds impelled them on. Robert Southey, 1774-1843.

Psalms 105:35*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34. Locusts… caterpillars—These words must signify either different species of the locust family, or different stages of their propagation. The former seems quite probable, for the larva, or unwinged locust, does not fly, and could not be brought in by a “wind.” In Exodus 10, only the ארבה, (arbeh, the common name for locust,) is mentioned, while in the text the arbeh and ילק, yelek, and in the parallel place, (Psa_78:46,) the arbah and חסיל, hhaseel, are named. But neither yelek nor hhaseel is ever translated “locust” in our English Version, but the former always “caterpillar,” and the latter either canker-worm or caterpillar. The distinction is seen Joe_1:4 : “That which the ‘locust’ (arbeh) hath left hath the canker-worm (yelek) eaten, and that which the yelek hath left hath the ‘caterpillar’ (hhaseel) eaten.” These words may be used, in the text and Psa_78:46, interchangeably for greater variety of diction, but it would rather seem, upon a comparison of all the places where they occur, that they denote different species of “locust,” which have not yet been clearly identified. This idea greatly aggravates the features of the judgment upon Pharaoh, as leaving the land absolutely waste and barren in their track.

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

He spake, and the locusts came. (see Exo_10:13, Exo_10:14) And caterpillars. Either a kind of locust, or the locust at one period of its growth. Not mentioned in Exodus. And that without number . (see Exo_10:14, Exo_10:15)

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

so many locusts

"there were so many locusts"

The locusts ate up all of the vegetation ... They ate up all the crops of the ground

These two phrase have basically the same meaning and are used together for emphasis. AT: "The insects ate all the plants and all the crops in the land" (See: Parallelism)

He killed every firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength

Here the second phrase about the "firstfruits" is used to describe the "firstborn" in the first phrase. AT: "He killed every firstborn in their land, which were the firstfruits of all their strength" or "Then Yahweh killed the oldest son in every house of the people of Egypt" (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)

translationWords

firstborn

firstfruits

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