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The Plague Fallen Upon the Land

Chang, Sok-chung 1

1관동대학교

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ABSTRACT

Why do we have the account on the plague of locusts? In what sense the swarm of locusts becomes the plague at the time of Exodus? This study intends to analyze the narrative of the eighth plague, the plague of locusts in Exodus 10:3-20. The usage of the words denoting ‘the land’ indicates that the main target of the plague is directed to the land itself, not the plants on the land. The locusts made the land of Egypt desolate and barren, so that the people of Egypt and Israel could not live there. Especially many locusts made the land dark and covered the ‘eye of the land’. This resulted in the consequence that the Egyptians could not see the land at all. Also instead of the expression such as ‘the plants’, the author uses the phrase ‘the plants in the land’ in the text in order to indicate that the focus of the text is ‘the land’. When Moses prayed, those locusts were removed. The text maintains that “not a single locust remained in all the land of Egypt”. To the author the purpose of the plague is the complete destruction of the locusts, especially from the land of Egypt. Many thought that the real victims of this plague were the plants and trees. However, a close analysis of the narrative of the plague shows that there is only one victim, that is, the land of Egypt. This land became desolate and the locusts did make it happen. Of course, the plants and trees were needed because the locusts wanted something to consume. But eventually the locusts were those which made the land of Egypt uninhabitable. Thus, the plague of the locusts was “the plague fallen upon the land”.

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