Locust

The most destructive of all biblical insects, also used figuratively as a devouring pest.

There was no defence against locusts

Joel 2:4–5 See also Proverbs 30:27

Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds. With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.

Locusts were frequently a sign of God's judgment

Deuteronomy 28:38; Amos 4:9 Exodus 10:4, Exodus 10:12–14, Exodus 10:19; Deuteronomy 28:42 curses for disobedience; 1 Kings 8:37 parallel 2 Chronicles 6:28; 2 Chronicles 7:13–14; Psalm 78:46, Psalm 105:34; Joel 1:4, Joel 2:25; Amos 7:1

You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

“I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

Locusts were a source of food

Leviticus 11:22 See also Matthew 3:4 parallel Mark 1:6

Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper.

Locusts used figuratively

Of numerous and destructive invaders

Judges 7:12; Isaiah 33:4 See also Judges 6:5; Jeremiah 46:23, Jeremiah 51:14, Jeremiah 51:27; Nahum 3:15–17

Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.

Of terrifying end-time activity

Revelation 9:3 See also Revelation 9:7

And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.