They shall cover the face of the land means that “There will be so many that they will completely cover the ground” (Good News Translation). (See Joel 1.4 and 2.3-11 for another graphic description of a swarm of locusts.) So that no one can see the land simply describes further how dense the swarm of locusts will be. Good News Translation omits this second clause as unnecessary, but it adds emphasis to the warning. A translation model for the first two clauses is “They will completely cover the country [or, Egypt] so that you [plural] won’t be able to see the ground.”

They shall eat describes exactly what the locusts will do to the plant life. What is left to you is literally “the remainder of what is left, the leftover things for you [plural].” It refers to all the crops of the Egyptians that were not destroyed by the hailstorm of the seventh plague (but see the comment in the next paragraph relating to 9.25). After the hail is literally “from the hail.” Another way to express and they shall eat … is “The hailstones destroyed most of your crops, and these locusts will eat what is left.”

Every tree of yours is a general statement that simply emphasizes the extent of the destruction to come. Which grows in the field uses the participle of the verb “to sprout” with the article (literally “the sprouting ones”). New American Bible interprets this to mean “all foliage that has since sprouted in your fields” (the word “since” is added), and Translator’s Old Testament has “all the trees which are beginning to grow again,” adding the word “again.” Although this softens the apparent contradiction of the verse with 9.25, most translations take the description of complete ruin in 9.25 as hyperbole (exaggeration) intended to make the narrative more emphatic. The translator should guard against harmonizing separate accounts. In the field is not intended to exclude any trees that may have been growing in enclosed areas. The destruction by the locusts was to be complete (see 10.15).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• They will completely cover Egypt so that you [plural] won’t be able to see the ground. The hailstones destroyed most of your crops, and these locusts will eat what is left, even the trees that are beginning to grow 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 .