When the Torah writes that the locusts will devour 'all the trees that grow for you from the field ... ', when could that have taken place? Didn't the hail break all the trees (9:25)?
Ramban #1 (citing the Ibn Ezra): A long period of time must have elapsed to allow the produce of the trees to re-grow. 1
Ramban #2 and Rashbam: Makas Barad took place in the month of Adar (when "the barley was ripe and the wheat had not yet sprouted" - 9:31-32). And when the Torah mentions 'the locusts consumed all the trees that grow,' 2 it is referring to the branches and boughs. In the month of Nisan, the wheat and the spelt ripened. 3 "... That grow for you from the field" refers to the blossoms and the buds that had now begun to sprout, and all the fruit of the tree, to the buds that had grown into fruit. 4
The Ramban refutes this explanation, seeing as, taking into account that Moshe was eighty (as the Torah wrote in 7:7) and Yisrael spent forty years in the desert, all the plagues must have taken place in the same year, as the Mishnah specifically states in Eduyos 2:10.
Which is presumably why the Seforno translates "v'Achal" as "will spoil" (as in Parshas Vayelech, Devarim 31:17).
Which the Torah refers to here as "the remaining residue that was left by the hail."
All in the month of Nisan, the month that they left Egypt - Ramban, after the plagues of darkness and the slaying of the firstborn had taken place.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "[It will cover] the appearance of the land (Ein ha'Aretz) - [I.e.,] the visibility of the land (Mar'eh ha'Aretz)." What is Rashi clarifying?
Gur Aryeh: This does not mean that the Arbeh will cover the ground. 1 Rather, the locusts will block the light of the sky from reaching the ground - such that it will not be seen. The verse then continues, "[... the viewer] will be unable to see the ground" - despite that the ground will not be covered - because the light will be blocked. 2
