And the locusts came up uses the same verb as verse 12, suggesting the locusts were also flying and hopping under their own power. Revised English Bible says “They invaded the whole land” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible, and others), and Good News Translation has “They came in swarms” (New American Bible “They swarmed”). And settled on the whole country of Egypt, literally “settled at every boundary of Egypt,” means “settled in every area of the country” (New International Version). An alternative model for the first sentence is “They were swarming everywhere in Egypt.”

A dense swarm of locusts: dense swarm is literally “very heavy,” and such … as had never been before is literally “before it [there] was not such a locust like it.” The Hebrew does not have a separate word for swarm, but the word for “locust,” though singular in form, is collective in meaning. In some languages this will be expressed as “the largest group of locusts.” Nor ever shall be again is simply “and after it will not be such.” So Good News Translation has “It was the largest swarm of locusts that had ever been seen or that ever would be seen again.” Contemporary English Version has “never before had there been so many locusts in Egypt, and never again will there be so many.” Another way to render the final part of this verse is “This was the largest swarm of locusts that people in Egypt had ever seen, and they would never see so many locusts again.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .