Locusts That Cover the Face of the Ground

Midrash Aggadah Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 10:5 View source

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 16, 2025

The warning for the eighth plague is as graphic as anything the Torah has yet described.

"They shall cover the face of the ground," the Lord tells Moses through the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 10:5, "so that it will be impossible to see the ground, and shall destroy the remainder that was spared to you from the hail, and destroy every tree which groweth for you out of the field."

The Aramaic paraphrase, preserved in the Targum attributed to Yonatan ben Uzziel, builds the image carefully. V'chasyu yat chezu ar'a — they shall cover the face of the earth. A living carpet of locusts so dense that soil itself disappears from view. And then the economic precision: what was spared from the hail.

Recall that the seventh plague had taken the early harvest — the barley and the flax. But wheat and spelt ripen later, and they had survived. Egypt's grain reserves were not destroyed. They were bruised but intact.

Now the Holy One announces that the locusts will finish what the hail started. What the ice spared, the teeth will consume.

The Maggid teaches: the Lord's judgments are measured. Each plague is tuned to strip away exactly what the previous one left. Egypt was not being punished randomly. It was being dismantled systematically, piece by piece, until nothing remained to hide behind.

Themes

Destruction Divine justice Miracles

Biblical References

Exodus 10:5

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