Exodus 10:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I will bring the locusts into thy coasts— That this terrible plague, like the rest, was miraculous and supernatural, there can be no doubt: however, travellers inform us of such horrid devastations committed by these destructive insects, as very amply explain the description given by the sacred writer in the 5th, 6th, 14th, and 15th verses, Thevenot, in particular, in his Travels, tells us of armies of locusts laying waste the countries of the Cossacks. Their increase is wonderful, and their numbers almost incredible: they are supposed each to lay near three hundred eggs. Such as have been eye-witnesses, report that they have seen the whole air in Arabia darkened by them in their flight for eighteen or twenty miles. They eclipse the light of the sun, says Pliny, in their flight; the people looking up to them in anxious suspense, lest they should cover their whole country. They are so destructive, that large territories have been laid bare by them in a few hours, and the inhabitants reduced to famine. Pliny further tells us, that they do not spare even the bark of trees, but eat every thing that comes in their way, even to the very doors of houses. These, sent upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians by Jehovah, were peculiarly grievous: Before them were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such, Exodus 10:14. Yet, if we may credit Pliny, there have been locusts seen in India three feet long. See Psalms 105:34 and Nahum 3:17.