Verse 37
37. Blasting Destruction of grain by a pernicious east wind. Com.
Genesis 41:6. Deuteronomy 28:22; Amos 4:9.
Mildew ירקון , yellowness. A disease of grain, produced in the East by a hot, poisonous wind which turns the ears yellow.
Locust A destructive insect, swarms of which frequently devastate Palestine and neighbouring lands. See on Exodus 10:4. Says an Eastern traveller: “With the burning south winds there come from the interior of Arabia and from the most southern parts of Persia clouds of locusts, whose ravages to these countries are as grievous, and nearly as sudden, as those of the heaviest hail in Europe. We witnessed them twice. It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun was considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants.” Olivier.
Caterpillar The word חסיל , chasil, from חסל , to strip off, or devour, can hardly designate the caterpillar, though, besides here and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 6:28, it is so rendered in Psalms 78:46; Isaiah 34:4; Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25. In Deuteronomy 28:38 the ravages of the locusts are represented by the verb חסל , and it is therefore better to understand by the word chasil a kind of locust, specially noted for stripping off and devouring the very last vestige of vegetation, even after other destructive insects had gone before it. Compare Joel 1:4.
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