LOCUSTS IN THE BIBLE

Locust appear in many places in Scripture, so let us make sure first that everyone understands what they are. This can get a little confusing at times since the nine related Hebrew words for locust are also translated in the King James Version as caterpillar, grasshopper, beetle, cankerworm, and palmer-worm. Locusts begin life as larvae. Next is the pupal stage at which point of development one can distinguish two different types: those ritually unclean insects who “run” and the ritually clean “leapers.” (See Leviticus 11:20-23). When they are mature, they develop wings and and fly. In all stages of their development they are ravenous eaters. (Stradling)

It is surprising that some of these varieties were ritually clean food for the Jews and are still eaten today across the world by many people. Just consider the example of John the Baptist who subsisted on them as well as honey while in the desert (Matthew 3:4). Although locust could be utilized as a food source, in the biblical references they are much more often cited as a destroyer of food supplies, and they were much feared. But first, it should be noted that as with any image taken from nature, one needs to consider the immediate context of each biblical passage to determine which specific property of that concrete image forms the point of comparison.

The small size of a locust is used in at least three passages to make a point. The one passage that comes to mind immediately is Numbers 13:33 in which the Israelite spies report back that they considered themselves as mere locust in comparison to the giant inhabitants of Canaan. But even more so, Isaiah says in 40:22 that God sits above the circle of the earth, and in comparison with Him its inhabitants are grasshoppers. This same insubstantial characteristic of a locust is expressed in a slightly different way by the Psalmist: “I am gone like a shadow at evening, I am shaken off like a locust.” (Psalm 109:23)

Although each individual locust may be small in size, their accumulated might consists of their ability to come together in large swarms. Thus, they form an apt figure of comparison with an enemy army. So we learn that the Midianite tents are as numerous as swarms of locust (Judges 6:5); their people as thick as locust (Judges 7:12), and that the enemies of Egypt will be more numerous than locusts (Jeremiah 46:23).

And they are able to accomplish this coordinated effort without any sort of leader. “The locust have no king, yet all of them march in rank.” (Proverbs 30:27) Waltke explains the meaning of this verse: “How much more should God's people under God's king advance God's kingdom by fighting in unison against the enemy...”

The ability of an adult locust to fly is its characteristic being referred to in Nahum 3:16-17 in which the prophet taunts Nineveh by saying that when God's judgment comes, she will find that her guards and scribes have flown away. On the other hand, the leaping locust form a good comparison with other, larger animals. Job 39:19-20 has God asking Job, “Do you give the horse its might? Do you make it leap like the locust?”

But the most common point of comparison in the Bible relies on the image of the ravenous appetite of locusts. Thus, “Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers, as locust leap, they leaped upon it.” (Isaiah 33:4) And Nahum 3:15 prophesies that Nineveh will be devoured as a locust devours.

The literal origin of this imagery can be traced back at least to God's warnings to Egypt where the eighth plague is of locusts who “devour everything growing in the fields.” I will not bother tracing all the many prophetic verses in the Bible in which God's justice on His enemies falls like an army of devouring locusts, but the two most extensive passages are worth noting.

Joel 1 pictures a hoard of locust as army, and in Joel 2 an army is described as a hoard of locust. “The prophecy of Joel was occasioned by an invasion of locusts (Joel 2:1-11; 2:25), which in Joel's prophetic imagination became an emblem of divine judgment against an apostate nation. Joel describes the invasion with minute and technical accuracy, referring, for example, to the 'cutting locust,' 'the swarming locust,' 'the hopping locust,' and 'the destroying locust' in reference to the stages of the locusts' development.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

For other, briefer mentions of the locusts as images associated with God 's judgment, see passages such as Deuteronomy 28:42; I Kings 8:37; II Chronicles 7:13; Jeremiah 46:23; Amos 4:9; Psalm 78:46; and Psalm 105:34.

But the epitome comes in the final book of the Bible. As DBI states, “The tour de force of locust passages in the Bible is the apocalyptic locusts of Revelation 9:7-11. Beginning with a literal locust as the core of the description, the author's imagination then transforms the insect into a fantastic and terrifying image of judgment.”

I will not attempt to decipher all of the imagery in this passage (see my post on “Revelation 8-11” for some of it), but just note the ways this passage recaps some of the imagery mentioned above in various OT passages: these locust are compared to horses and an advancing army equipped with armor (9:7, 9); they have human characteristics (9:7,8); they possess wings to fly (9:9); they have strong teeth with which to devour (9:8); and they have the power to hurt people for months to come (9:10). But in stark contrast to the statement in Proverbs 30:27, these particular locusts have a king over them, which makes them a much more powerful force with which to reckon. Such will be the nature of the enemy in the last days, which can only be conquered by the might of God.