Exodus 10:14, commentary and pictures

The locusts that went up over all Egypt and settled in all its coasts were very grievous, without parallel before or after in severity and numbers, an unprecedented plague in its vastness. They came when Moses stretched out his rod, at his command, the Lord bringing an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night so that they arrived in the morning. They went up over the whole land and rested everywhere within its borders, covering the face of the whole earth and filling the sky until the land was darkened.

They ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, devouring its green growth until no green thing remained in tree or field through all Egypt. The devastation nearly destroyed Egypt and helped to ruin the kingdom. The plague was a dreadful judgment and miracle sent by the Lord over the whole kingdom of Egypt, standing in succession after the earlier plagues and before the plague of darkness, counted by some as the ninth plague.

Moses and Aaron warned Pharaoh beforehand of its nature and effect if he refused to humble himself and let Israel go, telling him God would bring locusts to cover the face of the earth and eat the residue that had escaped the hail, and every plague came exactly as told. Pharaoh was given the choice to humble himself and release Israel or to refuse and suffer, but he was very slow to yield, yielding no more than he was compelled to do by dreadful visitations and only a little while under most grievous affliction. God allowed him to resist in scorn and unbelief and bore with his continual rebellion in order to show His great signs and wonders before Pharaoh and Israel, to confirm Israel's faith in Him as the only true and living God, to give unmistakable evidence of the difference He placed between the Egyptians and His people, to show that though Israel had been bound by hard labor and despised He had chosen them as His peculiar people and would deliver them wonderfully, so that Israel would tell their sons and sons' sons what He wrought in Egypt and all would know that He is the Lord.

Their coming at Moses' bidding and leaving at his bidding exposed the impotence of Serapis, the idol believed to protect Egypt from locusts, and showed that protection belongs to Jehovah. The Egyptians were afraid that after eating everything in the field the locusts would attack and devour the people themselves. The plague drove Pharaoh to call for Moses and Aaron in haste, confess sin against the Lord and against them, ask forgiveness only this once, and ask them to entreat the Lord to take away this death.

At Moses' entreaty the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind that took the locusts away and cast them into the Red Sea, leaving not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. Though humbled while death threatened and promising to let Israel go, Pharaoh chose to receive the plagues rather than submit to God, and once relieved hardened his heart without remorse, took back what he had granted, and would not let the children of Israel go, but continued to resist. The locust devastation marked a stage in his forced concessions: first he permitted sacrifice only in the land of Egypt, then he permitted only the men to go, then after the locusts he permitted the children and wives to go also but would not let the cattle go, after which Moses warned that the angel of God would slay the firstborn.