After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too!
Parallel translations
- WEB What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
- KJV That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
- BSB What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
- NKJV What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
- NASB ¶What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Successive waves of locusts devour everything the previous wave left behind. The total devastation of the land is the occasion for Joel's whole message.
Overview
Using four terms for locusts, Joel paints a picture of relentless, comprehensive ruin in which nothing edible survives. Whether these describe stages of the same swarm or successive plagues, the point is exhaustive devastation sent by God. Interpreters differ on whether the locusts are literal, symbolic of invading armies, or both; either way the verse sets up the call to repentance, for such judgment exposes human helplessness before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Joel 2:25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
- Amos 4:9“I struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- Exod 10:4Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
- Isa 33:4Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
- Ps 78:46He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
- Amos 7:1Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest.
- Deut 28:38You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in; for the locust will consume it.
- Ps 105:34He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number,
- 2 Chr 7:13“If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
- Jer 51:14Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they will lift up a shout against you.’
- Exod 10:12–15Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left.”
- Rev 9:3–7Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
- 2 Chr 6:28“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
- 1 Kgs 8:37“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;
- Nah 3:15–17There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
- Jer 51:27“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm!
- Deut 28:42Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.
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Christ at the center
The promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the call to 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD' are fulfilled at Pentecost in the name of Jesus.
How Joel 1:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.