What Does Exodus 10:5 Mean?
They will cover the eye of the land, so that no one can see the land. They will eat what has escaped, the remnant that was left to you from the hail, and they will eat every tree that sprouts for you out of the field.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:THE KEY
The Hebrew layers three kinds of survival into one phrase, the remainder, the escaped, and what is still left, and all of it remains food for the locusts.
THE MEANING
The verse shows devastation arriving in layers: what the hail leaves is still consumed by the locusts. Survival is real, but it can remain vulnerable; a remnant is not the same as restoration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever gets through one blow is therefore secure: here, the spared remainder faces a second loss.
THE ROOT
יֶתֶר
yeter
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
Be left over; what remains, or what exceeds.
“residue” in this verse is yeter. The word names what is left over, then the verse adds separate words for what escaped and what remains. The piling up makes survival visible without promising that what survives is safe.
ALSO GROWS
hotir: Leave behind; spare.
הוֹתִיר
In Exodus 10:15, this form describes what the hail left for the locusts to eat.
yoter: More; greater; what exceeds.
יוֹתֵר
This branch carries the sense of what is left beyond a measure, echoing the residue that remains after the hail.
הַפְּלֵטָה
hapletah
GROWS FROM
פלט
p-l-ṭ
Slip away; escape from danger or capture.
“escaped” in this verse is hapletah. This word names what gets through the hail as an escapee. Escape marks survival from one force, while the verse leaves open what happens next.
ALSO GROWS
palit: Survivor; fugitive.
פָּלִיט
The related noun names one who has escaped, like the crop that gets through the hail.
palat: Escape; bring away from danger.
פָּלַט
The verb makes escape a passage out of immediate danger, not a guarantee of lasting safety.
הַנִּשְׁאֶרֶת
hannish'eret
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
Remain; be left behind.
“that was left” in this verse is hannish'eret. This is a different root from יתר (yeter, remainder): one word names what is left over, another names what remains. Together, they intensify the sense of survival while showing that survival itself is not protection.
ALSO GROWS
she'ar: Rest; remainder.
שְׁאָר
This noun names what is left, linking the verse’s remaining crop to the broader language of remnants.
she'erit: Remnant; what survives.
שְׁאֵרִית
This branch likewise names what remains after loss, without implying that the remnant is beyond further harm.
THE PATTERN
What one devastation leaves behind can become the next devastation’s food.
For they covered the eye of the whole land, so that it went dark. They ate all the grass of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, and no green remained in the trees, or in the grass of the field, through all the land of Egypt.What the shearer has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the lapper has eaten; and what the lapper has left, the gnawer has eaten.And it happened that when they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, Lord GOD, release, please. By whom shall Jacob rise? For he is small.THE THREAD
What the shearer has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the lapper has eaten; and what the lapper has left, the gnawer has eaten.In both verses, יתר (yeter, remainder) names what one force leaves behind for another to consume. Joel extends that root through a chain of swarms, making the residue here part of a repeating cycle rather than a secure endpoint.
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