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Thankfully not living in a land affected by these creatures one is at a loss to unravel
the details of this verse but so too, or so it appears, are the translators of the N.I.V.:
"What the locust has left
the great locusts have eaten:
What the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten:
What the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten."
The translators, however, add a note saying "the precise meaning of the four Hebrew
words used here for locusts is uncertain", but what is certain is that everything has been
eaten! There is nothing left! That is Joel's point and although we might have problems
fully appreciating the finer details of this verse we can most surely "get the message". In
poetic style Joel brings home the fact that the plague of locusts has destroyed everything!
"What the cutting locust left,
"What the lopping locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
the swarming locust ate.
What the swarming locust left,
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten.
the leaping locust ate.
What the hopping locust left,
and what the leaping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten" (R.S.V.).
the devouring locust ate." (Moffatt).
Moffatt, certainly, with "lopping locust left" and "leaping locust left" perhaps comes
nearest to a poetic representation of this verse.
We have spent some time on this verse because Joel reveals the main purpose of his
prophecy through a double reference to locusts. The first, in Joel 1: 4, would cause
further depression to his already dejected listeners who already knew the consequences of
the plague and would not welcome being reminded. His next reference, however, should
gladden their hearts and lift the clouds of despondency:
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust have eaten, the cankerworm, and
the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2: 25,
A.V.)
Thus the theme of Joel, as it is in all the other prophets, is the restoration of the
peoples of Israel and Judah into one kingdom under the Kingship of the Lord.