Exodus 10:15
וַיְכַס אֶת־עֵין כָּל־הָאָרֶץ וַתֶּחְשַׁךְ הָאָרֶץ וַיֹּאכַל אֶת־כָּל־עֵשֶׂב הָאָרֶץ וְאֵת כָּל־פְּרִי הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר הוֹתִיר הַבָּרָד וְלֹא־נוֹתַר כָּל־יֶרֶק בָּעֵץ וּבְעֵשֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶה בְּכָל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְכַ֞ס אֶת־עֵ֣ין כָּל־הָאָרֶץ֮ וַתֶּחְשַׁ֣ךְ הָאָרֶץ֒ וַיֹּ֜אכַל אֶת־כָּל־עֵ֣שֶׂב הָאָ֗רֶץ וְאֵת֙ כָּל־פְּרִ֣י הָעֵ֔ץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הוֹתִ֖יר הַבָּרָ֑ד וְלֹא־נוֹתַ֨ר כָּל־יֶ֧רֶק בָּעֵ֛ץ וּבְעֵ֥שֶׂב הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה בְּכָל־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
καὶ ἐκάλυψεν τὴν ὄψιν τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐφθάρη ἡ γῆ· καὶ κατέφαγεν πᾶσαν βοτάνην τῆς γῆς καὶ πάντα τὸν καρπὸν τῶν ξύλων ὃς ὑπελείφθη ἀπὸ τῆς χαλάζης· οὐχ ὑπελείΦ οὐδὲν ἐν τοῖς ξύλοις καὶ ἐν πάσῃ βοτάνη πεδίου ἐν γῇ
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Operueruntque universam superficiem terræ, vastantes omnia. Devorata est igitur herba terræ, et quidquid pomorum in arboribus fuit, quæ grando dimiserat: nihilque omnino virens relictum est in lignis et in herbis terræ, in cuncta Ægypto.
Cubrieron por completo la superficie de la tierra y la oscurecieron. Se comieron todas las plantas y todos los frutos de los árboles que se habían salvado del granizo. No quedó ni una sola hoja verde en los árboles ni en las plantas de todo Egipto.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y cubrió la faz de todo el país, y oscurecióse la tierra; y consumió toda la hierba de la tierra, y todo el fruto de los árboles que había dejado el granizo; que no quedó cosa verde en árboles ni en hierba del campo, por toda la tierra de Egipto.
They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse continues the account of the locust plague in Egypt: the locusts cover the surface of the land, causing it to darken, and then consume all the vegetation and tree fruit that had survived the earlier hail, leaving nothing green anywhere in Egypt.
Key words
- y.Khas ("it covered", H3680) — piel narrative verb, intensive stem, describing a thorough covering action by a singular collective subject (the locust swarm).
- 'ein ("eye of", H5869J) — construct noun; the idiom 'ein kol-ha'aretz literally "the eye of all the land" functions as "the surface/face of the land."
- tech.Shakh ("it grew dark", H2821) — qal narrative verb, simple stem, marking a resulting state (darkness) following the covering.
- ho.Tir ("it had left over", H3498) — hiphil (causative) perfect, referring to what the hail caused to remain.
- no.Tar ("it was left behind", H3498) — niphal (passive) perfect, same root as ho.Tir but passive voice, stating that nothing was left after the locusts.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of vav-consecutive narrative verbs — va-yekhas ("and it covered"), va-techshakh ("and it grew dark"), va-yokhal ("and it ate") — each advancing the storyline in sequence. The subject of the first and third verbs (the locusts, introduced earlier in the chapter) is treated grammatically as singular, consistent with collective-noun agreement in Biblical Hebrew narrative. The idiom 'ein kol-ha'aretz ("the eye of all the land") uses "eye" as a term for visible surface, rather than a literal organ.
The verse also plays on the root y-t-r (H3498) in two stems: hotir (hiphil, "it had left over," referring to the hail's earlier action) and notar (niphal, "was left behind," negated here — "nothing was left"). This root repetition creates a grammatical contrast between what the hail caused to remain and what, after the locusts, remained at all — namely nothing.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders 'ein ("eye of," H5869J) as ὄψιν ("appearance/face"), and the Vulgate as superficiem ("surface"), both softening the Hebrew's literal "eye" idiom into a more general visual term.
The LXX translates tech.Shakh ("it grew dark," H2821) as ἐφθάρη ("was ruined/corrupted"), which shifts the meaning from a description of darkening to one of destruction, unlike the Hebrew and the Vulgate's vastantes ("laying waste"), which likewise diverges from the Hebrew's specific sense of darkness by emphasizing devastation rather than obscured light.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.