Exodus 10:5

Summary

Exodus 10:5 describes the effect of the locust plague Moses announces to Pharaoh: the locusts will cover the surface of the land so that the ground cannot be seen, and they will consume both what survived the hail and every tree growing in the field.

Key words

• khi.Sah ("it will cover", H3680) — Piel sequential perfect; the intensive stem conveys a thorough, complete covering, continuing the narrative sequence begun in preceding verses.
• 'ein ("eye of", H5869J) — feminine singular construct noun; here used idiomatically for the visible "surface" or "face" of the land, not the literal eye.
• yu.Khal ("anyone will be able", H3201) — Qal imperfect, expressing a general future incapacity ("no one will be able to...").
• pe.le.Tah ("escaped thing", H6413) — feminine singular noun designating what has survived, followed by the Niphal participle nish.'E.ret ("remains", H7604), reinforcing the idea of a passive remainder left over from the hail.
• tzo.Me.ach ("is sprouting", H6779) — Qal active participle, describing trees in the ongoing state of growing, contrasted with what has already been destroyed.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of sequential perfects (khi.Sah, 'a.Khal twice) that continue the narrative begun earlier in the announcement to Pharaoh, each introduced by the narrative ve ("and", H9001/H9002). This grammatical chaining presents the locusts' actions as a connected sequence of consequences: first covering, then an inability to see, then consuming.

The double object construction with 'et (H0853) before both ha.'A.retz occurrences marks the land as the explicit object first of covering and then of seeing — grammatically the land is acted upon twice, reinforcing the totality of the locusts' presence. The construct phrase Ye.ter ha.pe.le.Tah ha.nish.'E.ret ("the remainder of the escaped thing that remains") stacks near-synonymous terms for what survived the hail (ha.pe.le.Tah, nish.'E.ret), emphasizing that even this small residue will be consumed. The final clause uses the participle tzo.Me.ach ("is sprouting") to describe trees still in active growth, which the sequential perfect 'a.Khal ("it will eat") will terminate.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ein ha.'A.retz ("eye of the land") as τὴν ὄψιν τῆς γῆς ("the face/appearance of the land"), matching the idiomatic sense rather than a literal "eye." The Vulgate similarly uses superficiem terræ ("surface of the land"). The LXX also renders the construct chain "Ye.ter ha.pe.le.Tah ha.nish.'E.ret" more expansively as πᾶν τὸ περισσὸν τῆς γῆς τὸ καταλειφθέν, ὃ κατέλιπεν ὑμῖν ἡ χάλαζα ("all the excess of the land that was left, which the hail left for you"), adding a relative clause not explicit in the Hebrew construct phrase. The Vulgate's in agris ("in the fields," plural) differs slightly from the Hebrew singular ha.sa.Deh ("the field", H7704G).