Locusts
The Locusts [1]
Four different types of locusts are mentioned by Joel in verse
4, chapter 1:
1. GAZAM, which means 'to cut off,' and refers to the locusts
that eat the tops off the stalks of plants. This type of locust
has been called the 'gnawing locust,' or 'the devourer,' and has
no wings. The eschatological (future) reference is to Tiglath-pileser
III, also known as Pul, the Assyrian king.
2. ARBEH, which means 'to increase;' this type of locust eats
the stalks of the plants. It has been called 'the swarming' locust.
The eschatological reference is to Sargon II, an aristocrat unlike
his predecessor, Tiglath-pileser III, who was a commoner. Sargon
II founded the Sargonid Dynasty.
3. YELEK, which means 'to lick up,' and designates the locust
that eats the stub of the stalk. The eschatological reference
is to the Assyrian king Sennachrib.
4. CHASIL, which means 'to devour,' and denotes the locust that
eats the root of the plant. And eschatologically, the term refers
to Esar-haddon. [2]
Locusts belong to the order called Orthoptera, and include grasshoppers.
True locusts, or jumping grasshoppers are migratory and belong
to the family Acrididae. There are 23,000 different species of
locusts. And they cause great damage to crops wherever they swarm.
Modern control measures include poison bait, the plowing under
of locust eggs, airplane sprayed insecticides and truck-mounted
poisonous mist blowers. When locusts swarm, the numbers are estimated
to be in the hundreds of millions.
A few Scripture references are: "They came up with their
livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible
to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage
it." Judges 6:5.
"They will chop down her forest,' declares the Lord, 'dense
though it be. They are more numerous than locusts, they cannot
be counted.'" Jeremiah 46:23
"Locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks.:
Proverbs 30:27
To demonstrate how destructive locust infestations can be, Gustaf
Dalman wrote: [3] "In Jerusalem the locusts appeared at that
time in flights lasting for hours, like clouds from the northeast
and south, from the 22nd to the 27th of March.....At the end of
May and the beginning of Jude the first hatching of eggs, deposited
by them into the ground, appeared as wingless larvae..., which
wander about and eat up everything green that they encounter.
Wild growth, grain, the leaves of fig trees, vines, even olive
trees, everything disappears where they move along. They cover
the walls of houses, penetrate to the inside through doors and
windows, just as Exodus 10:5f assumes. Following a sixfold shedding,
the wings appear after approximately two months, and twenty days
later they fly on..., to invade other regions."
Notes:
[1] Thieme, Robert. Joel; from notes. The designation and definition
of these terms was originally posed by Robert Thieme.
[2] Isaiah 7-11 speak specifically of Tiglath-pileser III; Isaiah
20:1 speaks of Sargon II; and Isaiah 36-39 and II Kings 18 speak
of Sennachrib. Esar-haddon is mentioned in Ezra 4:2.
[3] Dalman, Gustaf. Arbeit 1/2, 393f (based on Israel Aharoni's
description of the locust plague of 1915-16).