A disaster! Four terms are used for locusts referring to four kinds of locusts. The Old Testament has eight names for locusts. These include the desert locust, 6 cm in length. They are known for their relentless voracity. The African migratory locust referred to here (sometimes) migrates in swarms of 1000 square kilometres at a speed of 20 km/h over the fields. Per square kilometre you will find 40-50 million grasshoppers eating about 80,000 tons of corn per day. Here they swarm over the fields in four waves. All that is left is dead branches, suitable only as firewood. White, rotted trunks, bare and stark, rise disconsolately above the devastated arable land (Joel 1:7). It is a huge disaster.
There are four waves. This number (based on the four compass points: north, south, east and west) emphasizes the total destruction of the cropland. The repeated left
and has eaten
underscores the radical nature of the destruction.
4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.