Exodus 10:4

King James Version (1611 Edition)

Els, if thou refuse to let my people goe, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

King James Version
Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

Lexham English Bible
But if you are refusing to release my people, look, I am about to bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

New Century Version
If you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

New English Translation
But if you refuse to release my people, I am going to bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

Amplified Bible
'For if you refuse to let My people go, then hear this: tomorrow I will bring [migratory] locusts into your country.

New American Standard Bible
'For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

Geneva Bible (1587)
But if thou refuse to let my people go, beholde, to morowe will I bring grashoppers into thy coastes.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

Contemporary English Version
Do this by tomorrow, or I will cover your country with so many locusts

Complete Jewish Bible
Otherwise, if you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

Darby Translation
For, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, I will to-morrow bring locusts into thy borders;

Easy-to-Read Version
If you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

English Standard Version
For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

George Lamsa Translation
Else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts upon all Four domain;

Good News Translation
If you keep on refusing, then I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow.

Christian Standard Bible®
But if you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

Literal Translation
For if you refuse to send away My people, behold, I am going to bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf thou wilt not let my people go, beholde, tomorow wil I cause greshoppers to come vpon all places,

American Standard Version
Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to-morrow will I bring locusts into thy border:

Bible in Basic English
For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Or els if thou refuse to let my people go, beholde, to morowe wyll I bryng greshoppers into thy coastes:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Else, if thou refuse to let My people go, behold, to-morrow will I bring locusts into thy border;

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But if thou wilt not send my people away, behold, at this hour to-morrow I will bring an abundance of locusts upon all thy coasts.

English Revised Version
Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring locusts into thy border:

Berean Standard Bible
But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and nylt delyuere it, lo! Y schal brynge in to morewe a locuste in to thi coostis,

Young's Literal Translation
for if thou art refusing to send My people away, lo, I am bringing in to-morrow the locust into thy border,

Update Bible Version
For if you refuse to let my people go, look, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your border:

Webster's Bible Translation
Else, if thou shalt refuse to let my people go, behold, to-morrow will I bring the locusts into thy border:

World English Bible
Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

New King James Version
Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

New Living Translation
If you refuse, watch out! For tomorrow I will bring a swarm of locusts on your country.

New Life Bible
If you will not let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

New Revised Standard
For if you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But if, refusing, thou art to let my people go, behold me bringing in tomorrow a locust within thy bounds;

Douay-Rheims Bible
But if thou resist, and wilt not let them go, behold I will bring in to-morrow the locusts into thy coasts;

Revised Standard Version
For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'For if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.

Contextual Overview

¹ And the Lord said vnto Moses, Goe in vnto Pharaoh: for I haue hardned his heart, and the heart of his seruants, that I might shew these my signes before him: ² And that thou mayest tell in the eares of thy sonne, and of thy sonnes sonne, what things I haue wrought in Egypt, and my signes which I haue done amongst them, that ye may know how that I am the Lord. ³ And Moses and Aaron came in vnto Pharaoh, and saide vnto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrewes, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe before mee? Let my people goe, that they may serue me. ⁴ Els, if thou refuse to let my people goe, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast. ⁵ And they shall couer the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth, and they shall eate the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth vnto you from the haile, and shall eate euery tree, which groweth for you out of the field. ⁶ And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy seruants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers fathers haue seene, since the day that they were vpon the earth, vnto this day. And he turned himselfe, and went out from Pharaoh. ⁷ And Pharaohs seruants said vnto him, How long shall this man be a snare vnto vs? Let the men goe, that they may serue the Lord their God: Knowest thou not yet, that Egypt is destroyed? ⁸ And Moses and Aaron were brought againe vnto Pharaoh: and he said vnto them, Goe, serue the Lord your God: but who are they that shall goe? ⁹ And Moses said, We wil goe with our yong, and with our old, with our sonnes and with our daughters, with our flockes and with our heards will we goe: for we must hold a feast vnto the Lord. ¹⁰ And he said vnto them; Let the Lord bee so with you, as I will let you goe, and your litle ones. Looke to it, for euill is before you.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

morrow: Exodus 8:10, Exodus 8:23, Exodus 9:5, Exodus 9:18, Exodus 11:4, Exodus 11:5

locusts: The word arbeh, Locust, is derived from ravah, to multiply, be numerous, etc., because they are more prolific than any other insect, and because of the immense swarms of them by which different countries, especially the East, are infested. The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the name of Grylli; which includes three species, crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts. The common great brown locust is about three inches in length; has two antennae about an inch long, and two pair of wings. The head and horns are brown; the mouth and inside of the larger legs bluish; the upper side of the body and upper wings brown, the former spotted with black, and the latter with dusky spots. The back is defended by a shield of a greenish hue: the under wings are of a light brown, tinctured with green, and nearly transparent. It has a large open mouth, in the two jaws of which it has four teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, being calculated, from their mechanism, to gripe or cut. The general appearance of the insect is that of the grasshopper. The Egyptians had gods in whom they trusted to deliver them from these terrible invaders; but by this judgment they were taught that it was impossible to stand before Moses, the servant of Jehovah. Proverbs 30:27, Joel 1:4-7, Joel 2:2-11, Joel 2:25, Revelation 9:3

Reciprocal: Exodus 7:14 - he refuseth Exodus 9:2 - General Exodus 10:12 - eat every Leviticus 11:22 - General 2 Chronicles 7:13 - I command Jeremiah 38:21 - if thou James 4:6 - God

Cross-References

Numbers 24:24
And shippes shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shal afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and hee also shall perish for euer.

Isaiah 23:1
The burden of Tyre. Howle yee ships of Tarshish, for it is laide waste, so that there is no house, no entring in: from the land of Chittim it is reuealed to them.

Isaiah 23:12
And he said, Thou shalt no more reioice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, passe ouer to Chittim, there also shalt thou haue no rest.

Ezekiel 27:12
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinde of riches: with siluer, yron, tinne, and lead they traded in thy faires.

Ezekiel 27:25
The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the middest of the seas.

Daniel 11:30
For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieued and returne, and haue indignation against the holy Couenant: so shal he doe, he shall euen returne, and haue intelligence with them that forsake the holy Couenant.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Else, if thou refuse to let my people go,.... He threatens him with the following plague, the plague of the locusts, which Pliny x calls "denrum irae pestis":

behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast; according to Bishop Usher y this was about the seventh day of the month Abib, that this plague was threatened, and on the morrow, which was the eighth day, it was brought; but Aben Ezra relates it as an opinion of Japhet an Hebrew writer, that there were many days between the plague of the hail, and the plague of the locusts, that there might be time for the grass and plants to spring out of the field; but this seems not necessary, for these locusts only ate of what were left of the hail, as in the following verse.

x Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 29. y Annales Vet. Test. p. 21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The locusts - The locust is less common in Egypt than in many eastern countries, yet it is well known, and dreaded as the most terrible of scourges. They come generally from the western deserts, but sometimes from the east and the southeast. No less than nine names are given to the locust in the Bible, of which the word used here is the most common (ארבה 'arbeh); it signifies “multitudinous,” and whenever it occurs reference is made to its terrible devastations.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

The EIGHTH plague - the LOCUSTS

Verse Exodus 10:4. To-morrow will I bring the locusts — The word ארבה arbeh, a locust, is probably from the root רבה rabah, he multiplied, became great, mighty, c. because of the immense swarms of these animals by which different countries, especially the east, are infested. The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the term GRYLLI; and includes three species, crickets, grasshoppers, and those commonly called locusts; and as they multiply faster than any other animal in creation, they are properly entitled to the name ארבה arbeh, which might be translated the numerous or multiplied insect. See this circumstance referred to, Judges 6:5; Judges 7:12; Psalms 105:34; Jeremiah 46:23; Jeremiah 51:14; Joel 1:6; Nahum 3:15; Judith 2:19, 20; where the most numerous armies are compared to the arbeh or locust. The locust has a large open mouth; and in its two jaws it has four incisive teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, being calculated, from their mechanism, to grip or cut. Mr. Volney, in his Travels in Syria, gives a striking account of this most awful scourge of God: -

"Syria partakes together with Egypt and Persia, and almost all the whole middle part of Asia, in the terrible scourge, I mean those clouds of locusts of which travellers have spoken; the quantity of which is incredible to any person who has not himself seen them, the earth being covered by them for several leagues round. The noise they make in browsing the plants and trees may be heard at a distance, like an army plundering in secret. Fire seems to follow their tracks. Wherever their legions march the verdure disappears from the country, like a curtain drawn aside; the trees and plants, despoiled of their leaves, make the hideous appearance of winter instantly succeed to the bright scenes of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, in order to surmount some obstacle, or the more rapidly to cross some desert, one may literally say that the sun is darkened by them."

Baron de Tott gives a similar account: "Clouds of locusts frequently alight on the plains of the Noguais, (the Tartars,) and giving preference to their fields of millet, ravage them in an instant. Their approach darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude, it hides the light of the sun. They alight on the fields, and there form a bed of six or seven inches thick. To the noise of their flight succeeds that of their devouring actively, which resembles the rattling of hail-stones; but its consequences are infinitely more destructive. Fire itself eats not so fast; nor is there any appearance of vegetation to be found when they again take their flight, and go elsewhere to produce new disasters."

Dr. Shaw, who witnessed most formidable swarms of these in Barbary in the years 1724 and 1725, gives the following account of them: "They were much larger than our grasshoppers, and had brown-spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was towards the latter end of March. In the middle of April their numerous swarms, like a succession of clouds, darkened the sun. In the month of May they retired to the adjacent plains to deposit their eggs: these were no sooner hatched in June than the young brood first produced, while in their caterpillar or worm-like state, formed themselves into a compact body of more than a furlong square, and, marching directly forward, climbed over trees, walls, and houses, devouring every plant in their way. Within a day or two another brood was hatched, and advancing in the same manner, gnawed off the young branches and bark of the trees left by the former, making a complete desolation. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water, or else heaped up therein heath, stubble, c., which they set on fire but to no purpose: for the trenches were quickly filled up and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms succeeding one another; while the front seemed regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close that retreat was altogether impossible. In a month's time they threw off their worm-like state; and in a new form, with wings and legs, and additional powers, returned to their former voracity." - Shaw's Travels, 187. 188, 4to edition.

The descriptions given by these travellers show that God's army, described by the Prophet Joel, Joel 2:1-11, was innumerable swarms of locusts, to which the accounts given by Dr. Shaw and others exactly agree.