What Does Exodus 10:19 Mean?

(19) **The Lord turned a mighty strong west wind** . . . —As locusts come, so they commonly go, with a wind. They cannot fly far without one. It often happens that a wind blows them into the sea. Pallas says, speaking of Crimean locusts in the year 1799:—“Great numbers of them were carried [from the Crimea] by northerly winds into the sea, where they perished, and were afterwards washed on shore in heaps” (*Travels,* vol. ii., p. 424). **The Red sea.**—Heb., *the sea of weeds,* or *of rushes.* The Red Sea probably acquired this name among the Hebrews from the fact that in the time of Moses its north-western recess communicated with a marshy tract, extending as far as the Bitter Lakes, and abounding in aquatic plants of a luxuriant growth. (Comp. Exodus 2:3, where the same term designates the water-plants of the Nile.) **There remained not one locust . . . —**Niebuhr says of locusts in Arabia:—“Souvent il en reste beaucoup après le départ général” (*Description de l’ Arabie,* p. 153). But, on the other hand, there are times when the whole swarm takes its departure at once. “A wind from the south-west,” says Morier, “which had brought them, so completely drove them forwards that not a vestige of them was to be seen two hours afterwards” (*Second Journey,* p. 98).