Joel 1:4

Several waves of locusts had consumed all the agricultural produce of the land. What one wave of these voracious insects had left uneaten, other subsequent waves had destroyed. The devastation of the land had been complete (cf. Amos 4:9). God had threatened locust plagues as punishment if His people proved unfaithful to Him (Deuteronomy 28:38; Deuteronomy 28:42).

Four different words for "locusts" appear in this verse (and in Joel 2:25), but a total of nine occur in the Old Testament. These words have led some interpreters to conclude that four types of locust are in view or that locusts in four stages of their maturity are. [Note: E.g., J. A. Thompson, "Joel’s Locusts in the Light of Near Eastern Parallels," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 14 (1955):52-55; idem, "Translation of the Words for Locust," Bible Translator 25 (October 1974):405-11.] It seems better, however, to view the locusts as coming in waves, gnawing, swarming, creeping, and stripping as they devoured the vegetation. [Note: See H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos, pp. 27-28; and Keil, 1:181-82. For eyewitness accounts of devastating locust plagues, see S. R. Driver, The Books of Joel and Amos, pp. 40, 89-93; G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, 2:391-95; and John D. Whiting, "Jerusalem’s Locust Plague," National Geographic, December 1915, pp. 511-50. For more detailed discussions of locusts and locust plagues, see Stanley Baron, The Desert Locust; L. V. Bennett, "Development of a Locust Plague," Nature 256 (1975):486-87; Lev Fishelson, Fauna Palestina: Insecta. Vol. 3: Orthoptera, Acridoidea; Ovid R. Sellers, "Stages of Locust in Joel," American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 52 (1935-36):81-85; and Z. Waloft and S. M. Green, "Regularities and Duration of Regional Locust Plagues," Nature 256 (1975):484-85.] Four waves of invasion picture a thorough devastation (cf. Jeremiah 15:3; Ezekiel 14:21). Though the prophets sometimes used locusts as a figure for horses (e.g., Jeremiah 51:27), most interpreters have concluded that Joel described a real locust invasion rather than a military invasion by soldiers on horses.