Thy crowned men [are] as the locusts
Tributary kings, and hired officers, as some think, who might be
distinguished by what they wore on their heads; or their own
princes and nobles, who wore coronets or diadems; unless their
religious persons are meant, their Nazarites and devotees, their
priests; these were like locusts for their number, fear, and
flight in time of danger, and for their spoil of the poor; and
some locusts have been seen with little crowns on their heads, as
those in ( Revelation
9:7 ) "which had on their heads as it were crowns like gold".
In the year 1542 came locusts out of Turkish Satmatia into
Austria, Silesia, Lusatia, and Misnia, which had on their heads
little crowns F5. In the year 1572 a vehement wind
brought large troops of locusts out of Turkey into Poland, which
did great mischief, and were of a golden colour F6; and
Aelianus F7 speaks of locusts in Arabia, marked
with golden coloured figures; and mention is made in the Targum
on ( Jeremiah
51:27 ) , of the shining locust, shining like gold: and
thy captains as the great grasshoppers;
or "locusts of locusts" {h}; those of the largest size. The
Vulgate Latin renders the word for captains "thy little ones",
junior princes, or officers of less dignity and authority; these
were, as the Targum paraphrases it, as the worms of locusts; but
rather as the locusts themselves, many and harmful: which
camp in the hedges in the cold day;
in the cold part of the day, the night; when they get into the
hedges of fields, gardens, and vineyards, in great numbers, like
an army, and therefore said to encamp like one: [but] when
the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is
not
known where they [are];
whither they are fled, as the Targum; so these captains, or half
pay officers, swarmed in great numbers about the city, and in the
provinces, while it was a time of peace, and they were indulged
in sloth, and enjoyed much ease and prosperity; but when war
broke out, and the heat of it began to be felt, these
disappeared, and went into their own countries, from whence they
came, with the auxiliaries and hired troops; nor could they be
found where they were, or be called upon to do their duty: this
is true of locusts in a literal sense, who flee away when the sun
rises; hence the Arabs, as Bochart says F9
elegantly express this by the word "ascaara"; signifying, that
when the sun comes to the locust it goes away, According to
Macrobius F11, both Apollo and Hercules are names
for the sun; and both these are surnamed from their power in
driving away locusts: Hercules was called Cornopion by the
Oeteans, because he delivered them from the locusts F12: and
Apollo was called Parnopius by the Grecians, because, when the
country was hurt by locusts, he drove them out of it, at
Pausanias F13 relates; who observes, that they
were drove out they knew, but in what manner they say not; for
his own part, he says, he knew them thrice destroyed at Mount
Sipylus, but not in the same way; one time a violent wind drove
them out; another time a prodigious heat killed them; and a third
time they perished by sudden cold; and so, according to the text
here, the cold sends them to the hedges, and the heat of the sun
obliges them to abandon their station.
F5 Vid. Frantzii Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 5. c. 4. p. 799.
F6 Ibid. p. 798.
F7 Hist. Animal. l. 10. c. 13.
F8 (ybwg bwgk) "ut locustae locustarum", Vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus; "sicut locusta locustarum", Burkius.
F9 Hierozoic. par. 2. c. 2. col. 458.
F11 Saturnal l. 1. c. 17. p. 335. & c. 20. p. 362.
F12 Strabo. Geograph. l. 13. p. 422.
F13 Attica, sive l. 1. p. 44.