What Does Exodus 10:14 Mean in the King James?
And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The swarm is increase made weight, filling Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim, the constricted land) to its edges.
THE MEANING
You are brought face to face with a force that multiplies until it covers the whole land and settles within every boundary. Its weight is extreme, and the verse gives it no familiar comparison: nothing like it stands before or after it.
THE ROOT
כָּבֵד
kaved
GROWS FROM
כבד
כבד (k-b-d; kaved): to be heavy, to carry weight.
“grievous” in this verse is kaved. The locusts are described as heavy, a weight pressing across the land. The same root gives כָּבוֹד (kavod; weightiness, honor), so the verse’s devastation is expressed through the language of weight.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, weightiness, honor.
כָּבוֹד
The swarm’s כָּבֵד (kaved; heavy) presence shares a root with weightiness: its reach is felt as a load on the land.
hikhbid: To make heavy, to press down with weight.
הִכְבִּיד
This verb shows the root’s movement from weight to the act of making something bear that weight.
הָאַרְבֶּה
ha’arbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
רבה (r-b-h; ravah): to increase, become many.
“locusts” in this verse is ha’arbeh. The Hebrew word for locust, אַרְבֶּה (arbeh; locust), is associated with רבה (ravah; increase, become many), so multiplication is carried in the swarm’s name. Beside כָּבֵד (kaved; heavy), the verse describes increase made weight across the whole land.
ALSO GROWS
ravah: To increase, grow numerous.
רָבָה
This verb makes explicit the increase associated with the locust’s name.
harbeh: Much, in great quantity.
הַרְבֵּה
This branch carries the same root’s sense of abundance, illuminating the swarm’s overwhelming number.
THE PATTERN
A multiplying swarm becomes an overwhelming weight by occupying the ground it reaches.
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.He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.THE THREAD
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.Joel uses the same Hebrew word, אַרְבֶּה (arbeh; locust), whose root is tied to increase, and names the years the swarm consumes. That root connection places this passage’s devastation beside the promise that what the locust devoured is restored.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us