“He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 105:34 Mean?
The psalmist describes the eighth plague of Egypt with a detail that emphasizes divine authority: "He spake, and the locusts came." God spoke. The locusts obeyed. The cause-and-effect is immediate and absolute. God's word is sufficient to mobilize nature.
The addition of "caterpillers" (yelek — a stage of locust development) and the phrase "without number" paints a picture of overwhelming, inexhaustible destruction. The swarm is so vast it can't be counted. Every individual insect is responding to a divine command, and there are too many to enumerate.
This verse is part of Psalm 105's retelling of the Exodus story as praise — not as history lesson but as worship. The plagues aren't just remembered; they're celebrated as evidence of God's sovereign power. What terrified Egypt is praised by Israel.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What has God spoken into your life that you haven't yet obeyed?
- 2.What does the immediacy of creation's response to God's word teach about obedience?
- 3.How does the scale of God's detailed authority — orchestrating billions of locusts with a word — affect your trust?
- 4.What would locust-level obedience look like in your life?
Devotional
God spoke and the locusts came. That's it. No ritual. No incantation. No complex process. A word. And then locusts — without number, beyond counting, consuming everything.
The simplicity of divine action is one of Scripture's most consistent themes. God speaks and things happen. He said "let there be light" and there was. He said to the locusts "come" and they came. Between God's word and the result, there's no gap, no process, no mechanism. Just command and obedience.
The phrase "without number" is deliberately overwhelming. Try to count the locusts in a swarm — millions, billions. Every single one of them responded to God's voice. Every wing, every leg, every flight path was orchestrated by a single sentence from God's mouth. The scale of God's detailed authority is incomprehensible.
What if you heard God's voice the way the locusts did — with immediate, unquestioning obedience? The locusts didn't deliberate. They didn't ask why. They didn't evaluate whether the command made sense. They heard and they came. Without number, without delay, without objection.
The creation obeys God's voice more readily than the people God created to know Him. What is God speaking to you that you're still deliberating about?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
He spake, and the locusts came,.... A great army of them, and covered the land, that it was even darkened by them; and…
See an account of these plagues in Exo. 6–11. Compare Psa 78:43-51. This is mostly a mere enumeration of the plagues in…
After the history of the patriarchs follows here the history of the people of Israel, when they grew into a nation.
I.…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture