Locust

LOCUST

A voracious winged insect, belonging to the genus known among naturalists as the Grylli, closely resembling the grasshopper, and a great scourge in oriental countries in both ancient and modern times. There are ten different names in the Hebrew Bible for insects of this kind; but some of these probably designate different forms or stages in life of the same species. The Bible represents their countless swarms as directed in their flight and march by God, and used in the chastisement of guilty nations, Deu 28:38-42 1Ki 8:37 2Ch 6:28 . A swarm of locusts was among the plagues of Egypt; they covered the whole land, so that the earth was darkened, and devoured every green herb of the earth, and the fruit of every tree which the hail had left, Exo 10:4-19 . But the most particular description of this insect, and of its destructive career, in the sacred writings, is in Joe 2:3-10 . This is one of the most striking and animated descriptions to be met with in the whole compass of prophecy; and the double destruction to be produced by locusts and the enemies of which they were the harbingers, is painted with the most expressive force and accuracy. We see the destroying army moving before us as we read, and see the desolation spreading. It should also be mentioned, that the four insects specified in Joe 1:4, the palmer-worm, the locust, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, are strictly, according to the Hebrew, only different forms of locusts, some perhaps without wings, as mentioned below. The following extracts from Dr. Shaw and Mr. Morier, which are also corroborated by Niebuhr, Burckhardt, and other travelers, may serve as a commentary upon this and other passages of Scripture.Dr. Shaw remarks, “Those which I saw, were much bigger than our common grasshoppers, and had brown spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was towards the end of March, the wind having been some time from the south. In the middle of April, their numbers were so vastly increased, that in the heat of the day they formed themselves into large and numerous swarms, flew in the air like a succession of clouds, and as the prophet Joel expresses it, they darkened the sun. When the wind blew briskly, so that these swarms were crowded by others, or thrown one upon another, we had a lively idea of that comparison of the psalmist, Psa 109:23, of being tossed up and down as the locust. In the month of May, these swarms gradually retired into the Metijiah and other adjacent plains, where they deposited their eggs. These were no sooner hatched, in June, than each of the broods collected itself into a compact body of a furlong or more square, and marching afterwards in a direct line towards the sea, they let nothing escape them; eating up every thing that was green and juicy, not only the lesser kinds of vegetables, but the vine likewise, the fig-tree, the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, Joe 1:12 ; in doing which, kept their ranks like men of war, climbing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way; nay, they entered into our very houses and bedchambers like thieves. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water; or else they heaped up therein heath, stubble, and such like combustible matter, which were severally set on fire upon the approach of the locusts. But this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were quickly filled up and the fires extinguished by infinite swarms succeeding one another, while the front was regarded less of danger and the rear pressed on so close that a retreat was altogether impossible. A day or two after one of these broods was in motion, others were already hatched to march and glean after them, gnawing off the very bark and the young branches of such trees as had before escaped with the loss only of their fruit and foliage. So justly have they been compared by the prophet to a great army; who further observes, that the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness.”Mr. Morier says, “On the 11th of June, while seated in our tents about noon, we heard a very unusual noise, that sounded like the rustling of a great wind at a distance. On looking up, we perceived an immense cloud, here and there semi-transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun. These we soon found to be locusts, whole swarms of them falling about us. These were of a red color, and I should suppose are the red predatory locusts, one of the Egyptian plagues. As soon as they appeared, the gardeners and husbandmen made loud shouts, to prevent their settling on their grounds. They seemed to be impelled by one common instinct, and moved in one body, which had the appearance of being organized by a leader, Joe 2:7 .”The locust was a “clean” animal for the Jews, Lev 11:22, and might be used for food. In Mat 3:4, it is said of John the Baptist, that “his meat was locusts, and wild honey.” They are still eaten in the East, and regarded by some as a delicacy, though usually left to the poorest of the people. Niebuhr remarks, “Locusts are brought to market on mount Sumara I saw an Arab who had collected a whole sackful of the. They are prepared in different ways. An Arab in Egypt, of whom we requested that he would immediately eat locusts in our presence, threw them upon the glowing coals, and after he supposed they were roasted enough, he took them upon the glowing coals, and after he supposed they were roasted enough, he took them by the legs and head, and devoured the remainder at one mouthful. When the Arabs have them in quantities, they roast or dry them in an oven, or boil the locusts, and then dry them on the roofs of their houses. One sees there large baskets full of them in the markets.”Burckhardt also relates the fact in a similar manner: “The Bedaween eat locusts, which are collected in great quantities in the beginning of April, when they are easily caught. After having been roasted a little upon the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks, with the mixture of a little salt.”In Jer 9:7-10, there is a terrific description of symbolical locusts, in which they are compared to war-horses, their hair to the hair of women, etc. Niebuhr heard an Arab of the desert, and another in Bagdad, make the same comparison. They likened “the head of the locust to that of the horse; its breast to that of the lion; its feet to those of the camel; its body to that of the serpent; its tail to that of the scorpion; its antennae, if I mistake not, to the locks of hair of a virgin; and so of other parts.” In like manner, the Italians still call locusts little horses, and the Germans hayhorses.

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Locust

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Apart from Mat 3:4, Mar 1:6, the only references to the locust in the NT are contained in the Apocalyptic Vision-the Fifth Trumpet or the First Woe (Rev 9:3; Rev 9:7)-where a swarm of locusts is represented as emerging out of the smoke of the abyss. There is probably here an allusion to the plague of locusts in Exo 10:4 f. (cf. also Joe 1:4), but both the power and the mission of these locusts are not that of the locust tribe. They have the power of scorpions, the deadliness of whose sting was proverbial (cf. 1Ki 12:11; 1Ki 12:14, 2Ch 10:11, Eze 2:6, Luk 10:19; Luk 11:12), while in contradistinction to the usual habits and tastes of locusts, they are commanded not to hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree. Apparently the work of judgment on this part of creation had been sufficiently carried out by the hail which followed the First Trumpet (Rev 8:7). It is interesting in this connexion both to compare and to contrast the part played by locusts in Exodus. There too they follow the hail, but in Exodus (Exo 10:5) their mission is to eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and to eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field, whereas here they have a more important vocation-they are sent forth as the messengers of Gods wrath upon those men which have not the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev 9:4), whom they are to torment with the torment of a scorpion for five months.

The appearance of these particular locusts is as unusual and unexpected as their mission (Rev 9:7-10). The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle: this part of the description would indeed be equally applicable to an ordinary swarm of locusts; it is borrowed from Joe 2:4, and is a metaphor chosen partly on account of their speed and compact array, but chiefly on account of a resemblance which has often been observed between the head of a locust and the head of a horse (see Driver, ad loc.). The next two features are peculiar to the locusts of the vision; they had crowns on their heads like unto gold, and their faces were as mens faces. The crowns are indicative of their power and authority, while their human faces testify to the wisdom and capacity with which they were imbued. Further, they had hair as the hair of women, and it has been supposed that we have here a reference to the long antennae of locusts.

The locust belongs to the same genus as the grass-hopper (Acrididae). There is a number of different kinds, but the most destructive are the dipoda migratoria and the Acridium peregrinum, of which the latter apparently predominate. The history of their development is somewhat strange: after emerging from the egg, which is laid in April or May, they enter the larva state, during which period they have no wings; in the pupa state, germinal wings enclosed in cases appear; while about a month later, they cast the pupa skin, and, borne on their newly emancipated wings, they soar into the air. Their hind-wings are generally very bright-coloured, being yellow, green, blue, scarlet, crimson, or brown, according to the species. It is noteworthy that, unlike moths, they pass through no chrysalis period. They only appear in swarms periodically, and when they do, they literally darken the sky (cf. Exo 10:15), while the rattle of their wings is like a fall of rain (cf. Joe 2:5). In the drier parts of the country they are at all times abundant, and are a constant source of annoyance to the husbandmen, whose crops they sometimes entirely devour. The larvae are responsible for most of the havoc wrought; as they are unable to fly, they hop over the land around which they were hatched and destroy grass, plants, and shrubs promiscuously. It is, on the other hand, easier to drive off full-grown locusts that can fly, as they are quickly frightened; but at all stages of their development they are extremely voracious.

They are used as an article of diet by the natives to-day, just as they were in NT times, the legs and wings being first removed, and the body stewed with butter or oil. They are said to taste somewhat like shrimps.

Literature.-H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible10, 1911, pp. 306ff., 313; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John, 1907, p. 115ff., The Gospel according to St. Mark2, 1902, p. 5f.; Hastings Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible 549; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) iii. 130f.; Encyclopaedia Biblica iii. 2807ff.; and especially Drivers Excursus on Locusts in his Joel and Amos, 1897, pp. 82-91, cf. also pp. 37-39, 48-53; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1910 ed., p. 407f.; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1887, i. 79, 80, 142, 391-5, 402.

P. S. P. Handcock.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

locust

An insect resembling a large grasshopper, that infests grain and wheat in swarms, ruining the crops. They are one of the worst scourges in the East; they were the eighth plague God sent upon the Egyptians because Pharao would not let the Israelites go to sacrifice to the Lord (Exodus 10).

Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary

Locust

for Animal, see Grasshopperfor Plant, Locust. An evergreen tree growing about 6 to 9 meters (20-30 feet) tall and having small glossy leaves. A native of Syria and Palestine, it bears long pods known as carob or locust beans ( Luk 15:16); (husks, KJV). These may have been used for food in dire circumstances ( 2Ki 6:25), (NEB).

Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible

Locust

a well-known insect, which commits terrible devastation to vegetation in the countries which it visits. In the East it is especially prevalent, and at times commits such ravages as to produce famine and render the district almost uninhabitable.

I. There are ten Hebrew words which appear to signify locust in the Old Testament, while in the Greek the general term is , which is employed in the New Testament. It has been supplosed that some of these words denote merely the different states through which the locust passes after leaving the egg, viz. the larva, the pupa, and the perfect insect all which much resemble each other, except that the larva has no wings, and that the pupa possesses only the rudiments of those members, which are fully developed only in the adult locust (Michaelis, Supplem. ad Lex. Hebr. 2:667, 1080). But this supposition is manifestly wrong with regard to several of these terms, because, in Lev 11:22, the word , “after his kind,” or species, is added after each of them (compare Lev 11:14-16). It is most probable, therefore, that all the rest are also the names of species. But the problem is to ascertain the particular species intended by them respectively.

(1.) ARBEH’ (, occurs in Exo 10:4; Sept. , a vast flight of locusts, or perhaps indicating that several species were employed, Vulg. locustam; and in Exo 10:12-14; Exo 10:19, and locusta, Eng. “locusts;” Lev 11:22, , bruchus, “locust;” Deu 28:38, , locustae, “locust;” Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; , locustarum, “grasshoppers;” 1Ki 8:37, , locssta, “locust;” 2Ch 6:28, , locusta, “locusts;” Job 39:20, , locustas, “grasshopper;” Psa 78:46, , Symm. , locustae, “locust;” Psa 105:34, , locusta, “locusts;” Psa 109:23, , locustae, “locust;” Pro 30:27, , locusta, “locusts;” Jer 46:23, , locusta, “grasshoppers;” Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25, , locustar, “locust;” Nah 3:15, , bruchus, “locusts;” Nah 3:17, , locusts, “locusts”). In almost every passage where arbeh occurs, reference is made to its terribly destructive powers.

It is the locust of the Egyptian plagues described in Exodus 10, where, as indeed everywhere else, it occurs in the singular number only, though it is there associated with verbs both in the singular and plural (Exo 10:5-6), as are the corresponding words in the Sept. and Vulgate. This it might be as a noun of multitude, but it will be rendered probable that four species were employed in the plague on Egypt, of which this is named first (Psa 78:46-47; Psa 105:34). These may all have been brought into Egypt from Ethiopia (which has ever been the cradle of all kinds of locusts), by what is called in Exodus ” the east wind,” since Bochart proves that the word which properly signifies “east” often means “soth” also. The word arbeh may be used in Lev 11:22 as the collective name for the locust, and be put first there as denoting also the most numerous species; but in Joe 1:4, and Psa 78:46, it is distinguished from the other names of locusts, and is mentioned second, as if of a different species; just, perhaps, as we use the word fly, sometimes as a collective name, and at others for a particular species of insect, as when speaking of the hop, turnip, meat fly, etc. When the Hebrew word is used in reference to a particular species, it has been supposed, for reasons which will be given, to denote the Gryllus gregarius or migratorius. Moses, therefore, in Exodus, refers Pharaoh to the visitation of the locusts, as well known in Egypt; but the plague would seem to have consisted in bringing them into that country in unexampled numbers, consisting of various species never previously seen there (comp. Exo 10:5-6; Exo 10:15).

It is one of the flying creeping creatures that were allowed as food by the law of Moses (Lev 11:21). In this passage it is clearly the representative of some species of winged saltatorial orthoptera, which must have possessed indications of form sufficient to distinguish the insect from the three other names which belong to the same division of orthoptera, and are mentioned in the same context. The opinion of Michaelis (Suppl. 667, 910), that the four words mentioned in Lev 11:22 denote the same insect in four different ages or stages of its growth, is quite untenable, for, whatever particular species are intended by these words, it is quite clear from Lev 11:21 that they must all be winged ortholptera. The Septulagint word there clearly shows that the translator uses it for a winged species of locust, contrary to the Latin fathers (as Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, etc.), who all define the bruchus to be the untledged young or larva of the locust, and who call it attelabus when its wings are partially developed, and locusta when able to fly; although both Sept. and Vulg. ascribe flight to the bruchus here, and in Nah 3:17. The Greek fathers, on the other hand, uniformly ascribe to the both wings and flight, and therein agree with the descriptions of the ancient Greek naturalists. Thus Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, who, with his preceptor, was probably contemporaneous with the Septuagint translators of the Pentateuch, plainly speaks of it as a distinct species, and not a mere state: “The (the best ascertained general Greek word for the locust) are injurious, the still more so, and those most of all which they call (De Aniin).

The Sept. seems to recognize the peculiar destructiveness of the in 1Ki 8:37 (but has merged it in the parallel passage, 2 Chronicles), and in Nah 3:15, by adopting it for arbeh. In these passages the Sept. translators may have understood the G. migratorius or greguarius (Linn.), which is usually considered to be the most destructive species (from , I devour). Yet, in Joe 1:4; Joe 2:2, they have applied it to the yelek, which, however, appears there as engaged in the work of destruction. Hesychius, in the 3d century, explains the as “a species of locust,” though, he observes, applied in his time by different nations to different species of locusts, and by some to the . May not his testimony to this effect illustrate the various uses of the word by the Sept. in the minor prophets? Our translators have wrongly adopted the word “grasshopper” in Judges and Jer 46:23, where “locusts” would certainly have better illustrated the idea of “innumerable multitudes;” and here, as elsewhere, have departed from their professed rule “not to vary from the sense of that which they had translated before, if the word signified the same in both places” (translators to the reader, ad finern).

The Hebrew word in question is usually derived from, , “to multiply,” or “be numerous,” because the locust is remarkably prolific; which, as a general name, is certainly not inapplicable; and it is thence also inferred that it denotes the G. migratorius, because that species often appears in large numbers. However, the largest flight of locusts upon record, calculated to have extended over five hundred miles, and which darkened the air like an eclipse, and was supposed to come from Arabia, did not consist of the G. nigratorius, but of a red species (Kirby and Spence, Introd. to Entomology, 1:210); and, according to Forskal, the species which now chiefly infests Arabia, and which he names G. gregarius, is distinct from the G. migratorius of Linn. (Encyc. Brit. art. Entomology, page 193). Others derive the word from , “to lie hid” or “in ambush,” because the newly-hatched locust emerges from the ground, or because the locust besieges vegetables. Rosenmller justly remarks upon such etymologies, and the inferences made from them (Scholia in Joe 1:4), “How precarious truly the reasoning is, derived in this manner from the e mere etymology of the word, everybody may understand for himself. Nor is the principle otherwise in regard to the rest of the species.”

He also remarks that the references to the destructiveness of locusts, which are often derived from the roots, simply concur in this, that locusts consume and do mischief. Illustrations of the propriety of his remarks will abound as we proceed. Still, it by no means follows from a coincidence of the Hebrew roots, in this, or any other meaning, that the learned among the ancient Jews did not recognize different species in the different names of locusts. The English word fly, from the Saxon fleon, the Heb. , and its representative “fowl,” in the English version (Gen 1:20, etc.), all express both a general and specific idea. Even a modern entomologist might speak of “the flies” in a room, while aware that from fifty to one hundred different species annually visit our apartments. The Scriptures use popular language; hence “the multitude,” “the devourer,” or “the darkener,” may have been the familiar appellations for certain species of locusts. The common Greek words for locusts and grasshoppers, etc., are of themselves equally indefinite, yet they also served for the names of species, as , the locust generally, from the tops of vegetables, on which the locust feeds; but it is also used as the proper name of a particular species, as the grasshopper: , “four-winged,” is applied sometimes to the grasshopper; , from , “to chew,” sometimes to the caterpillar. Yet the Greeks had also distinct names restricted to particular species, as , , , etc. The Hebrew names may also have served similar purposes.

(2.) GEB (, Isa 33:4; Sept. , Vulgate omits, Engl. “locusts”), or GoB (, Amo 7:1, ; Aquila, [voratrices], locustae, “grasshoppers;” Nah 3:17, , locusts, “grasshoppers”). Here the lexicographers, finding no Hebrew root, resort to the Arabic, , “to creep out” (of the ground), as the locusts do in spring. But this applies to the young of all species of locusts, and Bochart’s quotations from Aristotle and Pliny occur unfortunately in general descriptions of the locust. Castell gives another Arabic root, , “to cut” or “tear,” but this is open to a similar objection. Parkhurst proposes , anything gibbous, curved, or arched, and gravely adds, “The locust in the caterpillar state, so called from its shape in general, or from its continually hunching out its back in moving.” The Sept. word in Nahum, , has already been shown to mean a perfect insect and species. Accordingly, Aristotle speaks of its parturition and eggs (Hist. Amim 5:29; so also Plutarch, De Isid. et Osir.). It seems, however, not unlikely that it means a wingless species of locust, genus Podisma of Latreille. Grasshoppers, which are of this kind, he includes under the genus Tettix. Hesychius defines the as “a small locust,” and Pliny mentions it as the smallest of locusts, without wings” (Histor. Nat. 29:5). Accordingly, the Sept. ascribes only leaping to it. In Nahum we have the construction , locust of the locusts, which the lexicons explain as a vast multitude of locusts. Archbishop Newcome suggests that “the phrase is either a double reading where the scribes had a doubt which was the true reading, or a mistaken repetition not expunged.”

He adds, that we may suppose the contracted plural for (Improved Version of the Minor Prophets, Pontefr. 1809, page 188). Henderson understands the reduplication to express “the largest and most formidable of that kind of insect” (Comment. on the Minor Prophets, ad loc.). Some writers, led by this passage, have believed that the gob represents the larva state of some of the large locusts; the habit of halting at night, however, and encamping under the hedges, as described by the prophet, in all probability belongs to the winged locust as well as to the larvae; see Exo 10:13 : “The Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.” Mr. Barrow (1:257-8), speaking of some species of South African locusts, says that when the larvae, which are still more voracious than the parent insect, are on the march, it is impossible to make them turn out of the way, which is usually that of the wind. At sunset the troop halts and divides into separate groups, each occupying in bee-like clusters the neighboring eminences for the night. It is quite possible that the gb may represent the larva or nymnpha state of the insect; nor is the passage from Nahum, “When the sun ariseth they flee away,” any objection to this supposition, for the last stages of the larva differ but slightly from the nympha, both which states may therefore be comprehended under one name; the gob of Nah 3:17 may easily have been the nymphae (which in all the Ametabola continue to feed as in their larva condition) encamping at night under the hedges, and, obtaining their wings as the sun arose, are then represented as flying away (so too Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on Nah 3:17). It certainly is improbable that the Jews should have had no name for the locust in its larva or nymphs state, for they must have been quite familiar with the sight of such devourers of every green thing, the larvae being even more destructive than the imago; perhaps some of the other nine names, all of which Bochart considers to be the names of so many species, denote the insect in one or other of these conditions. SEE GRASSHOPPER.

(3.) GAZAM’ (, Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25; Amo 4:9; in all which the Sept. reads , the Vulg. eruca, and the English “palmer-worm”). Bochart observes that the Jews derive the word from or , “to shear” or “clip,” though he prefers , “to cut,” because, he observes, the locust gnaws the tender branches of trees as well as the leaves. Gesenius urges that the Chaldee and Syriac explain it as the young unfledged bruchus, which he considers very suitable to the passage in Joel, where the gazam begins its ravages before the locusts; but Dr. Lee justly remarks that there is no dependence to be placed on this. Gesenius adds that the root in Arabic and the Talmud is kindred with , “to sher” a derivation which, however, applies to most species of locusts. Michaelis follows the Sept. and Vulgate, where the word in each most probably means the caterpillar, the larvae of the lepidopterous tribes of insects (Supplema. ad Lex. 290, compared with Recueil de Quest. page 63). We have, indeed, the authority of Columella, that the creatures which the Latins call erucae are by the Greeks called , or caterpillars (11:3), which he also describes as creeping upon vegetables and devouring them. Nevertheless, the depredations ascribed to the gazam, in Amos, better agree with the characteristics of the locust, as, according to Bochart, it was understood by the ancient versions. The English word “palmer-worm,” in our old authors, means properly a hairy caterpillar, which wanders like a palmer or pilgrim, and, from its being rough, called also “beareworm” (Mouffet, Insectorum Theatrum, page 186). SEE PALMERWORM.

(4.) CHAGAB’ (, Lev 11:22; Num 13:33; Isa 40:22; Ecc 12:5, and 2Ch 7:13, in all which the Sept. reads , Vulg. locusta, and Engl. “grasshopper,” except the last, where the Engl. has “locusts.” The manifest impropriety of translating this word “grasshoppers” in Lev 11:22, according to the English acceptation of the word, appears from its description there as being winged and edible; in all the other instances it most probably denotes a species of locust. Our translators have, indeed, properly rendered it “locust” in 2 Chronicles; but in all the other places “grasshopper,” probably with a view to heighten the contrast described in those passages, but with no real advantage. Oedman (Vern. Samml. 2:90) infers, from its being so often used for this purpose, that it denotes the smallest species of locust; but in the passage in Chronicles voracity seems its chief characteristic. An Arabic root, , signifying “to hide,” is usually adduced, because it is said that locusts fly in such crowds as to hide the sun; but others say, from their hiding the ground when they alight. Even Parkhurst demurs that “to veil the sun and darken the air is not peculiar to any kind of locust;” and with no better success proposes to understand the cucullated, or hoode, or veiled species of locust. Tychsen (Conmment. de Locust. page 76) supposes that chadab denotes the Gryllus coronatus, Linn.; but this is the Acanthodis coronatus of Aud. Serv., a South American species, and probably colnfined to that continent. Michaelis (Supplem. 668), who derives the word from an Arabic root signifying “to veil,” conceives that chagab represents either a locust at the fourth stage of its growth, “ante quartas exuvias quod adhuc velata est,” or else at the last stage of its growth, “post quartas exuvias, quod jam volans solem coelumque obvelat.”

To the first theory the passage in Leviticus 11 is opposed. The second theory is more reasonable, but chgb is probably derived not from the Arabic, but the Hebrew. From what has been stated above, it will appear better to own our complete inability to say what species of locust chgb denotes, than to hazard conjectures which must be grounded on no solid foundation. In the Talmud chgb is a collective name for many of the locust tribe, no less than eight hundred kinds of chgbim being supposed by the Talmud to exist! (Lewysohn, Zoolog. des Talm. 384). Some kinds of locusts are beautifully marked, and were sought after by young Jewish children as playthings, just as butterflies and cockchafers are nowadays. M. Lewysohn says ( 384) that a regular traffic used to be carried on with the chagbim, which were caught in great numbers, and sold after wine had been sprinkled over them; he adds that the Israelites were only allowed to buy them before the dealer had thus prepared them. SEE GRASSHOPPER.

(5.) CHANAMAL’ (, occurs only in Psa 78:47; Sept. ; Aq. ; Vulg. in pruina; Eng. “frost”). Notwithstanding this concurrence of Sept, Vulg., and Aquila, it is objected that “frost” is nowhere mentioned as having been employed in the plagues of Egypt, to which the Psalmist evidently alludes; but that, if his words be compared with Exo 10:5; Exo 10:15, it will be seen that the locusts succeeded the hail. The Psalmist observes the same order, putting the devourer after the hail (comp. Mal 3:11). Hence it is thought to be another term for the locust. If this inference be correct, and assuming that the Psalmist is describing facts, this would make a fourth species of locust employed against Egypt, two of the others, the arbeh and chasil, being mentioned in the preceding verse. Proposed derivation, , to set’le, and , to cut off, because where locusts settle they cut off leaves, etc., or as denoting some non-migrating locust which settles in a locality (see Bochart, in voc.). Michaelis (Supplem. 846) suggests the signification of ants, comparing the Arabic name for that insect, with prefixed. Gesenius regards it as a quadriliteral, and argues from the term , hail, in the parallel member, that it denotes something peculiarly destructive to trees. See FROST.

(6.) CHASIL’ (. 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Psa 78:46; Isa 23:4; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25; Septuag. , but in 2 Chronicles ; Vulg. rubigqo, bruchus, cerugo; Engl. always “caterpillar”). Gesenius derives it from the root , to eat off; Deu 32:38. It thus points to the same generic idea of destructiveness prominent in all this genus. SEE CATERPILLAR.

(7.) CHARGOL’ (, only in Lev 11:22; Septuag. ,Vulg. ophionsmachus, Auth. Vers. “beetle”), derived by Gesenius from the Arabic quadriliteral root , to gallop, as a horse, and applied by the Arabs to a flight of wingless locusts, but thought by him to indicate in Leviticus a winged and edible locust. Beckmann has arrived at the conclusion that some insect of the sphex or ichneumon kind was meant (apud Bochaxt, a Rosenmller, 3:264). The genus of locusts called Truxalis, said to live upon insects, has been thought to answer the description. But is it a fact that the genus Truxalis is an exception to the rest of the Acridites, and is pre-eminently insectivorous? Serville (Orthopt. p. 579) believes that in their manner of living the Truxalides resemble the rest of the Acridites, but seems to allow that further investigation is necessary. Fischer (Orthop. Europ. page 292) says that the nutriment of this family is plants of various kinds. It is some excuse for the English rendering “beetle” in this place, that Pliny classes one species of grylhsis, the house-cricket, G. domesticus, under the scarabaei (Hist. Nat. 11:8). The Jews interpret chargl to mean a species of grasshopper, German heuschrecke, which M. Lewysohn identities with Locusta viridissima, adopting the etymology of Bochart and Gesenius. The Jewish women used to carry the eggs of the chargol in their ears to preserve them from the earache (Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. et Rabbin. s.v. Chargol). SEE BEETLE.

(8.) YE’LEK (, Psa 105:34, , bruchus, “caterpillars;” Jer 51:14; Jer 51:27, , bruchus, “caterpillars;” and in the latter passage the Vulgate reads bruchus aculeatus, and some copies horripilantes; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25, , bruchus, “canker-worm;” Nah 3:15-16, and , “canker-worm”). Assuming that the Psalmist means to say that the yelek was really another species employed in the plague on Egypt, the English word caterpillar in the common acceptation cannot be correct, for we can hardly imagine that the larvae of the Papilionidae tribe of insects could be carried by “winds.” Canker-worm means any worm that preys on fruit. could hardly be understood by the Sept. translators of the minor prophets as an unfledged locust, for in Nah 3:16 they give the away. As to the etymology, the Arabic , to be white, is offered; hence the white locust or the chafer-worm, which is white (Michaelis, Recueil de Quest. page 64; Supp. ad Lex. Heb. 1080). Others give , to lick off; as Gesenius, who refers to Num 22:4, where this root is applied to the ox “licking” up his pasturage, and which, as descriptive of celerity in eating, is supposed to apply to the yelek. Others suggest the Arabic , to hasten, alluding to the quick motions of locusts. The passage in Jer 51:27 is the only instance where an epithet is applied to the locust, and there we find , “rough caterpillars.” As the noun derived from this descriptive term () means “nails,” “sharp-pointed spikes,” Michaelis refers it to the rough, sharp-pointed feet of some species of chafer (ut supra). Oedman takes it for the G. cristatus of Linn. Tychsen, with more probability, refers it to some rough or bristly species of locust, as the G. haematopus of Linn., whose thighs are ciliated with hairs. Many grylli are furnished with spines and bristles; the whole species Acheta, also the pupa species of Linn., called by Degeer Locusta pupa spinosa, which is thus described: Thorax ciliated with spines, abdomen tuberculous and spinous, posterior thighs armed beneath with four spines or teeth; inhabits Ethiopia. The allusion in Jeremiah is to the ancient accoutrement of war- horses, bristling with sheaves of arrows. SEE CANKER-WORM.

(9.) SALAM’ (), only in Lev 11:22, , attacus, “the bald locust.” A Chaldee quadriliteral root is given by Bochart, , to devour. Another has been proposed, , a rock or stone, and , to go up; hence the locust, which climbs up stones or rocks; but, as Bochart observes, no locust is known answering to this characteristic. Others give , a stone, and to hide under; equally futile. Tychsen, arguing from what is said of the salam in the Talmud (Tract, Cholin), viz. that “this insect has a smooth head, and that the female is without the sword-shaped tail,” conjectures that the species here intended is Gryllus eversor (Asso), a synonyme that it is difficult to identify with any recorded species. From the text where it is mentioned it only appears that it was some species of locust winged and edible.

(10.) TSELATSAL’ (, as the name of an insect only in Deu 28:42, , rubigo, “locust”). The root commonly assigned is , to sound (whence its use for a whizzing of wings, Isa 18:1; for cymbals, 2Sa 6:5; Psa 150:5; or any ringing instrument, as a harpoon, Job 41:7); hence, says Gesenius, a species of locust that makes a shrill noise. Dr. Lee says a tree-cricket that does so. Tychsen suggests the G. stridulus of Linn. The song of the gryllo- talpa is sweet and loud. On similar principles we might conjecture, although with perhaps somewhat less certainty, a derivation from the Chald. , to pray, and thence infer the Mantis religiosa, or Prier Iieu, so called from its singular attitude, and which is found in Palestine (Kitto’s Physical History, page 419). The words in the Septuag. and Vulgo properly mean the mildew on corn, etc., and are there applied metaphorically to the ravages of locusts. This mildew was anciently believed by the heathens to be a divine chastisement; hence their religious ceremony called Rubigalia (Pliny, Hist. Na. 18:29). The word is evidently onomatopoietic, and is here perhaps a synonyme for some one of the other names for locust. Michaelis (Supplem. 2094) believes the word is identical with chasil, which he says denotes perhaps the molecricket, Gryllus talpiformis, from the stridulous sound it produces. Tychsen (pages 79, 80) identifies it with the Gryllus stridulus, Linneus ( Edipoda stridula, Aud. Serv.). The notion conveyed by the Hebrew word will, however, apply to almost any kind of locust, and, indeed, to many kinds of insects; a similar word, tsalsalza, was applied by the Ethiopians to a fly which the Arabs called zimb, apparently identical with the tsetse fly of Dr. Livingstone and other African travelers. In the passage in Deuteronomy, if an insect be meant at all, it may be assigned to some destructive species of grasshopper or locust.

(11.) The Greek term for the locust is , which occurs in Rev 9:3; Rev 9:7, with undoubted allusion to the Oriental devastating insect, which is represented as ascending from the smoke of the infernal pit, as a type of the judgments of God upon the enemies of Christianity. They are also mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6), where it is not, as some have supposed, any plant that is intended, but the insect, which is still universally eaten by the poorer classes in the East, both in a cooked and raw state (Hackett’s Illustra. Of Script. page 97).

II. Locusts belong to that order of insects known by the term Orthoptera (or straight-winged). This order is divided into two large groups or divisions, viz. Cursoria and Saltatoria. The first, as the name imports, includes only those families of Orthoptera which have legs formed for creeping, and which are considered unclean by the Jewish law. Under the second are comprised those whose two posterior legs, by their peculiar structure, enable them to move on the ground by leaps. This group contains, according to Serville’s arrangement, three families, the Gryllides, Locustariae, and the Acridites, distinguished one from the other by some peculiar modifications of structure. The common housecricket (Gryllus domesticus, Oliv.) may be taken as an illustration of the Gryllides; the green grasshopper (Locusta viridissima, Fabr.), which the French call Sauterelie verte, will represent the family Locustariae; and the Acridites may be typified by the common migratory locust (OEldipoda migratoria, Aud. Serv.), which is an occasional visitor to Europe (see the Gentleman’s Magazine July, 1748, pages 331-414; also The Times, October 4, 1845). Of the Gryllides, G. cerisyi has been found in Egypt, and G. domesticus, on the authority of Dr. Kitto, in Palestine; but doubtless other species also occur in these countries. Of the Locustariae, Phaneroptera falcata, Serv. (G. falc. Scopoli), has also, according to Kitto, been found in Palestine, Bradyporus dasypus in Asia Minor, Turkey, etc., Saga Natoliae near Smyrna. Of the locusts proper, or Acridites, four species of the genus Truxalis are recorded as having been seen in Egypt, Syria, or Arabia, viz. T. nasuta, T. variabilis, T. procera, and T. miniata. The following kinds also occur: Opsomala pisciformis, in Egypt, and the oasis of Harrat; Paekiloceros hieroglyphicus, P. bufonius, P. punctiventris, P. vulcanus, in the deserts of Cairo; Dericorys albidula in Egypt and Mount Lebanon. Of the genus Acridium, A. maestum, the most formidable perhaps of all the Acridites, A. lineola (= G. AEgypt. Linn.), which is a species commonly sold for food in the markets of Bagdad (Serv. Orthop. 607), A. semifasciatum, A. peregrinum, one of the most destructive of the species, and A. morbosum, occur either in Egypt or Arabia. Calliptamus serapis and Chrotogonus lugubris are found in Egypt, and in the cultivated lands about Cairo; Eremobia carinata, in the rocky places about Sinai. E. cisti, E. pulchripennis, (Edipoda octofasciata, and OEd. migratoria (=G. migrat. Linn.), complete the list of the Saltatorial Orthoptera of the Bible lands.

Of one species M. Olivier (Voyage dans l’Empire Othoman, 2:424) thus writes: “With the burning south winds (of Syria) there come from the interior of Arabia and from the most southern parts of Persia clouds of locusts (Acridium peregrinum), whose ravages to these countries are as grievous and nearly as sudden as those of the heaviest hail in Europe. We witnessed them twice. It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain: the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants. Happily they lived but a short time, and seemed to have migrated only to reproduce themselves and die; in fact, nearly all those we saw the next day had paired, and the day following the fields were covered with their (lead bodies.” This species is found in Arabia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia. The ordinary Syrian locust greatly resembles the common grasshopper, but is larger and more destructive. It is usually about two inches and a half in length, and is chiefly of a green color, with dark spots. It is provided with a pair of antennae or “feelers” about an inch in length, projecting from the head. The mandibles or jaws are black, and the wingcoverts are of a bright brown, spotted with black. It has an elevated ridge or crest upon the thorax, or that portion of the body to which the legs and wings are attached. The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies; when so raised they spread their wings, and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving mass.

Locusts, like many other of the general provisions of nature, may occasion incidental and partial evil, but, upon the whole, they are an immense benefit to those portions of the world which they inhabit; and so connected is the chain of being that we may safely believe that the advantage is not confined to those regions. “They clear the way for the renovation of vegetable productions which are in danger of being destroyed by the exuberance of some particular species, and are thus fulfilling the law of the Creator, that of all which he has made should nothing be lost. A region which has been choked up by shrubs, and perennial plants, and hard, half-withered, impalatable grasses, after having been laid bare by these scourges, soon appears in a far more beautiful dress, with new herbs, superb lilies, fresh annual grasses, and young and juicy shrubs of perennial kinds, affording delicious herbage for the wild cattle and game” (Sparman’s Voyage, 1:367). Meanwhile their excessive multiplication is repressed by numerous causes. Contrary to the order of nature with all other insects, the males are far more numerous than the females. It is believed that if they were equal in number they would in ten years annihilate the vegetable system. Besides all the creatures that feed upon them, rains are very destructive to their eggs, to the larvae, pupae, and perfect insect. When perfect they always fly with the winds, and are therefore constantly carried out to sea, and often ignorantly descend upon it as if’ upon land. (See below, III.) Myriads are thus lost in the ocean every year, and become the food of fishes. On land they afford in all their several states sustenance to countless tribes of birds, beasts, reptiles, etc.; and if their office as the scavengers of nature, commissioned to remove all superfluous productions from the face of the earth, sometimes incidentally and as the operation of a general law, interferes with the labors of man, as do storms, tempests, etc., they have, from all antiquity to the present hour, afforded him an excellent supply till the land acquires the benefit of their visitations, by yielding him in the mean time an agreeable, wholesome, and nutritious aliment.

There are different ways of preparing locusts for food: sometimes they are ground and pounded, and then mixed with flour and water and made into cakes, or they are salted and then eaten; sometimes smoked; boiled or roasted; stewed, or fried in butter. Dr. Kitto (Pict. Bible, note on Lev 11:21), who tasted locusts, says they are more like shrimps than anything else; and an English clergyman, some years ago, cooked some of the green grasshoppers, Locusta viridissima, boiling them in water half an hour, throwing away the head, wings, and legs, and then sprinkling them with pepper and salt, and adding butter: he found them excellent. How strange, then, nay, “how idle,” to quote the words of Kirby and Spence (Entom. 1:305), “was the controvey concerning the locusts which formed part of the sustenance of John the Baptist,… and how apt even learned men are to perplex a plain question from ignorance of the customs of other countries!” They are even an extensive article of commerce (Sparman’s Voyage, 1:367, etc.). Diodorus Siculus mentions a people of Ethiopia who were so fond of eating them that they were called Acridophagi, “eaters of locusts” (24:3). Whole armies have been relieved by them when in danger of perishing (Porphyrius, De Abstinentia Carnis). We learn from Aristophanes and Aristotle that they were eaten by the inhabitants of Greece (Aristoph. Acharnen. 1116, 1117, edit. Dind.; Aristotle, Hist. Anin. 5:30, where he speaks of them as delicacies). (See below, III.) That they were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient Assyrians is evident from the monuments (Layard, Bab. and Nin. page 289).

Birds also eagerly devour them (Russell, Natural History of Aleppo, page 127; Volney, Travels, 1:237; Kitto’s Physical History of Pal. page 410). The locust-bird referred to by travelers, and which the Arabs call smurmur, is no doubt, from Dr. Kitto’s description, the “rose-colored starling,” Pastor roseus. The Reverend H.B. Tristram saw one specimen in the orange-groves at Jaffa in the spring of 1858, but makes no allusion to its devouring locusts. Dr. Kitto in one place (page 410) says the locust-bird is about the size of a starling; in another place (page 420) he compares it in size to a swallow. The bird is about eight inches and a half in length. Yarrell (British Birds, 2:51, 2d ed.) says “it is held sacred at Aleppo because it feeds on the locust;” and Colossians Sykes bears testimony to the immense flocks in which they fly. He says (Catalogue of the Birds of Dakhan) “they darken the air by their numbers… forty or fifty have been killed at a shot.” But he says “they prove a calamity to the husbandman, as they are as destructive as locusts, and not much less numerous.”

The great flights of locusts occur only every fourth or fifth season. Those locusts which come in the first instance only fix on trees, and do not destroy grain: it is the young, before they are able to fly, which are chiefly injurious to the crops. Nor do all the species feed upon vegetables; one, comprehending many varieties, the truxalis, according to some authorities, feeds upon insects. Latreille says the house-cricket will do so. “Locusts,” remarks a very sensible tourist, “seem to devour not so much from a ravenous appetite as from a rage for destroying.” Destruction, therefore, and not food, is the chief impulse of their devastations, and in this consists their utility; they are, in fact, omnivorous. The most poisonous plants are indifferent to them; they will prey even upon the crowfoot, whose causticity bursts the very hides of beasts. They simply consume everything without predilection, vegetable matter, linen, woolen, silk, leather, etc.; and Pliny does not exaggerate when he says, “Fores quoque tectorum,” “and even the doors of houses” (11:29), for they have been known to consume the very varnish of furniture. They reduce everything indiscriminately to shreds, which become manure. It might serve to mitigate popular misapprehensions on the subject to consider what would have been the consequence if locusts had been carnivorous like wasps. All terrestrial beings, in such a case, not excluding man himself, would have become their victims. There are, no doubt, many things respecting them yet unknown to us which would still further justify the belief that this, like ” every” other “work of God, is good” benevolent upon the whole (see Dillon’s Trav. in Spain, page 256, etc., London, 1780, 4to).

III. The general references to locusts in the Scriptures are well collected by Jahn (Bibl. Archaeol. 23), while Wemyss gives many of the symbolical applications of this creature (Clavis Symbolica, s.v.). It is well known that locusts live in a republic like ants. Agur, the son of Jakeh, correctly says, “The locusts have no king.” But Mr. Horne gives them one (Introduction, etc., 1839, 3:76), and Dr. Harris speaks of their having “a leader whose motions they invariably observe” (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, London, 1825). See this notion refuted by Kirby and Spence (2:16), and even by Mouffet (Theat. Insect. page 122, Lond. 1634). It is also worthy of remark that no Hebrew root has ever been offered favoring this idea. Our translation (Nah 3:17) represents locusts, “great grasshoppers,” as “camping in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth as fleeing away.” Here the locust, gob, is undoubtedly spoken of as a perfect insect, able to fly, and as it is well known that at evening the locusts descend from their flights and form camps for the night, may not the cold day mean the cold portion of the day, i.e., the night, so remarkable for its coldness in the East, the word being used here, as it often is, in a comprehensive sense, like the Gr. and Lat. dies? Gesenius suggests that , “hedges,” should here be understood like the Gr. , shrubs, brushwood, etc. (See above, 1, 2.) With regard to the description in Joel (chapter 2), it is considered by many learned writers as a figurative representation of the ravages of an invading “army” of human beings, as in Rev 9:2-12, rather than a literal account, since such a devastation would hardly, they think, have escaped notice in the books of Kings and Chronicles. Some have abandoned all attempt at a literal interpretation of Lev 11:22, and understand by the four species of locusts there mentioned, Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and the Romans. Theodoret explains them as the four Assyrian kings, Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar; and Abarbanel, of the four kingdoms inimical to the Jews, viz. the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans (Pococke’s Works, 1:214, etc., Lond. 1740; Rosenmller, Scholia in Joel. c. 1).

From the Scriptures it appears that Egypt, Palestine, and the adjacent countries were frequently laid waste by vast bodies of migrating locusts, which are especially represented as a scourge in the hand of divine Providence for the punishment of national sins; and the brief notices of the inspired writers as to the habits of the insects, their numbers, and the devastation they cause, are amply borne out by the more labored details of modern travelers.

1. Locusts occur in great numbers, and sometimes obscure the sun (Exo 10:15; Jer 46:23; Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; Joe 2:10; Nah 3:15; compare Livy, 42:2: AElian, N.A. 3:12; Pliny, N.H. 11:29; Shaw, Travels, page 187 [fol. 2d ed.] ; Ludolf, Hist. AEthiop. 1:13, and De Locustis, 1:4; Volney, Travels in Syria, 1:236).

2. Their voracity is alluded to in Exo 10:12; Exo 10:15; Joe 1:4; Joe 1:7; Joe 1:12; Joe 2:3; Deu 28:38; Psa 78:46; Psa 105:34; Isa 33:4 (comp. Shaw, Travels, page 187, and travelers in the East, passim).

3. They are compared to horses (Joe 2:4; Rev 9:7. The Italians call the locust “Cavaletta;” and Ray says, “Caput oblongum, equi instar prona spectans.” Compare also the Arab’s description to Niebuhr, Descr. die l’Arabie).

4. They make a fearful noise in their flight (Joe 2:5; Rev 9:9; comp. Forskal, Descr. page 81: “Transeuntes grylli super verticem nostrum sono magnae cataractae fervebant;” Volney, Trav. 1:235).

5. Their irresistible progress is referred to in Joe 2:8-9 (comp. Shaw, Trav. page 187).

6. They enter dwellings, and devour even the wood-work of houses (Exo 10:6; Joe 2:9-10; comp. Pliny, N.H. 11:29).

7. They do not fly in the night (Nah 3:17; comp. Niebuhr, Descr. de l’Arabie, page 173).

8. The sea destroys the greater number (Exo 10:19; Joe 2:20; compare Pliny, 11:35; Hasselquist, Trav. page 445 [Engl. transl. 1766]; also Iliad, 21:12).

9. Their dead bodies taint the air (Joe 2:20; comp. Hasselquist, Trav. page 445).

10. They are used as food (Lev 11:21-22; Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6; compare Pliny, N.H. 6:35; 11:35; Diod. Sic. 3:29; Aristoph. Achar. 1116; Ludolf, II. AEtiol). page 7 [Gent’s transl.]; Jackson, Marocco, page 52; Niebuhr, Descr. (de l’Arabie, page 150; Sparman, Trav. 1:367, who savs the Hottentots are glad when the locusts come, for they fatten upon them; Hasselquist, Travels, pages 232, 419: Kirby and Spence, Entom. 1:305). There are people at this day who gravely assert that the locusts which formed part of the food of the Baptist were not the insect of that name, but the long, sweet pods of the locust-tree (Ceratonia siliqua), Johannis brodt, “St. John’s bread,” as the monks of Palestine call it. For other equally erroneous explanations, or unauthorized alterations of , see Celsii Hierob. 1:74.

IV. The following are some of the works which treat of locusts: Ludolf, Dissertatio de Locustis (Francof. ad Moen. 1694) [this author believes that the quails which fed the Israelites in the wilderness were locusts (vid. his Diatriba qua sententia nova de Selavis sive Locustis de enditur, Francof. 1694), as do the Jewish Arabs to this day. So does Patrick, in his Comment. on Numbers. A more absurd opinion was that held by Norrelius, who maintained that the four names of Lev 11:22 were birds (see his Schediassma de Avibus sacris, Arbeh, Chagab, Solam, et Chargol, Upsal. 1746, and in the Bibl. Barem, 3:36)]; Faber, De Locustis Biblicis, et sigillatim de Avibus Quadrupedibus, ex Lev 11:20 (Wittenb. 1710-11); Asso, Abhlandlung von den Heuschrecken (Rostock, 1787; usually containing also Tychsen’s Comment. de Locustis); Oedman, Vermischte Sammlung, volume 2, c. 7; Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Entomology, 1:305, etc.; Bochart, Hierozoicon, 3:251, etc., ed. Rosenmller; Kitto, Phys. History of Palestine, pages 419, 420; Harris, Natural Hist. of the Bible, s.v. (1833); Harmer, Observations (Lond. 1797); Fabricius, Entomol. System. 2:46 sq.; Credner, Joel, page 261 sq.; Thomson, Land and Book, 2:102 sq.; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, page 306 sq.; Wood, Bible Aninmals, page 596 sq.; Hackett. Illustra. of Script. page 97; Serville, Aonograph in the Suites a Blufon; Fischer, Orthoptera Europcea; Suicer, Thesaurus, 1:169,179; Gutherr, De Victu Johannis (Franc. 1785); Rathleb, Akridotheologie (Hanover, 1748); Rawlinson, Five Ancient Monarchies, 2:299, 493; 3:144.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Locust

There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust. In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the Mosaic law they were reckoned “clean,” so that he could lawfully eat them. The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to this Oriental devastating insect.

Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e., straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more destructive. “The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving mass.” Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked into cakes; “sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and then eaten.” They were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient Assyrians.

The devastations they make in Eastern lands are often very appalling. The invasions of locusts are the heaviest calamites that can befall a country. “Their numbers exceed computation: the hebrews called them ‘the countless,’ and the Arabs knew them as ‘the darkeners of the sun.’ Unable to guide their own flight, though capable of crossing large spaces, they are at the mercy of the wind, which bears them as blind instruments of Providence to the doomed region given over to them for the time. Innumerable as the drops of water or the sands of the seashore, their flight obscures the sun and casts a thick shadow on the earth (Ex. 10:15; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 2:10). It See ms indeed as if a great aerial mountain, many miles in breadth, were advancing with a slow, unresting progress. Woe to the countries beneath them if the wind fall and let them alight! They descend unnumbered as flakes of snow and hide the ground. It may be ‘like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them is a desolate wilderness. At their approach the people are in anguish; all faces lose their colour’ (Joel 2:6). No walls can stop them; no ditches arrest them; fires kindled in their path are forthwith extinguished by the myriads of their dead, and the countless armies march on (Joel 2:8, 9). If a door or a window be open, they enter and destroy everything of wood in the house. Every terrace, court, and inner chamber is filled with them in a moment. Such an awful visitation swept over Egypt (Ex. 10:1-19), consuming before it every green thing, and stripping the trees, till the land was bared of all signs of vegetation. A strong north-west wind from the Mediterranean swept the locusts into the Red Sea.”, Geikie’s Hours, etc., ii., 149.

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Locust

(See JOEL.) The arbeh is the migratory devastating locust. The gowb, “grasshopper,” is a species of gryllus, with voracity like the migratory locust, but small in size (Smith’s Bible Dictionary makes gowb the nympha state of the locust): Amo 7:1. Nah 3:17; “the great grasshoppers (Hebrew: “the locust of locusts”) which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth flee away,” etc. The locust lays its eggs under shelter of hedges; they are hatched by the sun’s heat in the spring; by June the young are so matured as to be able to flee away. So Assyria shall disappear. The chagab is another of the Gryllidae (Num 13:33; Ecc 12:5); Isa 40:22, “grasshopper,” thus gowb = chagab. They all are Orthoptera with four wings; jaws strong and formed for biting.

The hind limbs of the saltatoria are largely developed, the thighs long and thick, the shanks still longer; thus “they have legs (the tibiae, so placed) above their feet to leap withal upon the earth” (Lev 11:21). The migratory locust is two inches and a half long, the forewings brown and black, and the thorax crested. Their devastations are vividly depicted (Exo 10:15; Joe 2:3; Joe 2:5; Joe 2:10). The ‘arbeh and the sol’am (“the bald, smooth headed, locust,” nowhere else mentioned; some of the winged orthopterous saltatoria; the Hebrew is related to the Egyptian for “locust”) and the grasshopper (chagab) might be eaten (Leviticus 11). They are generally thrown alive into boiling water with salt, the wings, legs, and heads being pulled off; the bodies taste like shrimps, and are roasted, baked, fried in butter, ground, pounded, and mixed with flour for cakes, or smoked for after rise.

For “beetle” (Lev 11:22) translate “chargowl,” some kind of the locust or grasshopper “saltatoria”, from the Arabic hardjal “to leap.” The tsaltsal occurs only in Deu 28:42, the locust that makes a shrill noise, from a root “to sound” (Gesenius), very destructive: one of the Cicadae. The “palmerworm” (gazam) is probably the larva state of the locust (Gesenius): Amo 4:9; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25. Septuagint translated “caterpillar” by which KJV translated chaciyl, which is rather one of the winged Gryllidae (“the consuming locust”.) Gazam is the gnawing locust, ‘arbeh the swarming locust, yeleq the licking locust (in Jer 51:27 “the rough caterpillars” refer to the spinous nature of the tibiae) which is translated “caterpillar” also in Psa 105:34, elsewhere “cankerworm.”

Locusts appear in swarms extending many miles and darkening the sunlight (Joe 2:10); like horses, so that the Italians call them “cavaletta”, “little horse” (Joe 2:4-5; Rev 9:7; Rev 9:9); with a fearful noise; having no king (Pro 30:27); impossible to withstand in their progress; entering dwellings (Exo 10:6; Joe 2:8-10); not flying by night (Nah 3:17; Exo 10:13 “morning”.) Birds, as the locust bird, which is thought to be the rose-colored starling, devour them; the sea destroys more (Exo 10:19). Their decaying bodies taint the air (Joe 2:20). Barrow (Travels, 257) says the stench of the bodies on the shore was smelt 150 miles off. Joel’s phrase “the northern army” implies that he means human invaders from the N., the point of entrance to the Assyrians and Babylonians.

Reichardt (Jewish Intelligence, Feb., 1867) notices the Hebrew letters of gazam = 50, exactly the number of years that the Chaldees ruled the Jews from the temple’s destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B.C., to Babylon’s overthrow by Cyrus, 538 B.C. ‘arbeh = 208, the period of Persia’s dominion over the Jews from 538 to 330 B.C., when Alexander overthrew Persia. yeleq = 140, the period of Greek rule over the Jews from 330 to 190 B.C., when Antiochus Epiphanes, Israel’s persecutor, was overcome by the Roman L. Scipio. chaciyl = 108, the exact number of years between 38 B.C., when Rome placed the Idumean Herod on the throne, and A.D. 70, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish nationality. Thus, the four successive world empires and the calamities which they inflicted on Israel are the truths shadowed forth by the four kinds of locusts in Joel.

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

Locust

LOCUST

1. Zoological description.Locusts belong to the natural order Orthoptera. The members of this order are insects which undergo only a partial metamorphosis; the larva is scarcely distinguishable from the adult, unless by its smaller form and by the atrophy of its wings, which develop only gradually in proportion to its growth. Excepting this difference, it has the same form and the same habits as the adult. In its perfect state, the first pair of wings, though remaining supple, have a certain consistency. They cover the hind wings, which are membranous and transparent, and folded under the upper wings in the form of a fan. The month is of shape suitable for mastication, and the jaws act like a pair of scissors. Formerly the Orthoptera were divided into runners and leapers, but this division has been abandoned. Locusts were classed among the leapers. According to the present nomenclature, we must class them among the Orthoptera genuina. Among these appear among others (a) the family of Locustode, to which the European grasshoppers (the subfamily of the Locustid) belong; and also (b) the family of Acridiode, which includes in its various sub-families the principal locusts of Palestine. It is of the highest importance to avoid the confusion which may arise from this misleading terminology, according to which the locusts of the Bible do not belong to the scientific family Locustode.

We are, then, to treat of the family Aeridiode. Their antennae are relatively short, scarcely exceeding the length of the head, whereas the antennae of the Locustode are very long, as long as their bodies. Their hind legs, adapted for leaping, have very strong thighs furnished with indentations, which are easily seen if slightly magnified. The head is vertical. The first pair of wings are more leathery than the second, but both present the same reticulated appearance. The rapid brushing of the thighs of the hind legs, furnished with indentations, against the nervures of the front wings produces, when the insect is at rest, a stridulation, the tone and height of which vary according to the species. The Acridiode are generally diurnal, and their food is essentially herbaceous. In the females the abdomen ends in a pair of short pincers, whereas in the Locustode this appendage is greatly prolonged like the blade of a sabre. These pincers serve to bury in the earth, one by one, the eggs, which are disposed in cylindrical masses and held together by a frothy secretion.

The insect moults six times, but the principal stages of its development are only twolarva and imago (perfect state). The intermediate state (pupa) which we find in other orders of insects is imperceptible in the Orthoptera. In their state of larvae, locusts, having no wings, or more correctly, merely the rudiments of wings, hop on the ground; even at this stage they are extremely destructive. Later, with the succeeding moultings, the wings develop, but remain enclosed in a membranous case; the insects now advance walking. At last, at their sixth moulting, which takes place from six to seven weeks after their coming out of the egg, locusts attain to their perfect state, and, unfolding their wings, fly through the air, producing what travellers describe as a hissing or a buzzing noise.

In Palestine as many as forty different species of Acridiode have been noted. The most important of these belong to the sub-families of the Tryxalid, the dipodid, and the Acridiid properly so called. The commonest species, those which are rightly associated with the locusts mentioned in the Bible, are the Pachytylus migratorius (formerly called dipoda migratoria) and the Sehistocerea peregrina (formerly called Acridium peregrinum). The colour of these insects is generally brown bordering on green, but with a bluish tint round the mouth, and with black spots on the body and green spots on the wings. The males are coloured differently from the females. In regard to their dimensions, locusts are as much as three or even four inches long when they are full grown.

Locusts are migratory insects, as the qualifying words, migratoria, peregrina, applied to them denote. They are produced chiefly in desert regions on the lofty plateaux of the East, and, carried by their wings and driven on by the east wind, they invade western Palestine in compact bodies.

2. Biblical names.The OT mentions locusts under at least nine different names. These are (1) arbch, Exo 10:4; Exo 10:12-14; Exo 10:19, Lev 11:22, Deu 28:38, Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, 1Ki 8:37, 2Ch 6:28, Job 39:20, Psa 78:46; Psa 105:34; Psa 109:23, Pro 30:27, Jer 46:23, Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25, Nah 3:15; Nah 3:17. (2) hgb, Lev 11:22, Num 13:33, 2Ch 7:13, Ecc 12:5, Isa 40:22. (3) solm, Lev 11:22. (4) hargl, Lev 11:22. (5) yelek, Psa 105:34, Jer 51:14; Jer 51:27, Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25, Nah 3:15 f. (6) hsl, 1Ki 8:37, 2Ch 6:28, Psa 78:46, Isa 33:4, Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25. (7) gzm, Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25, Amo 4:9. (8) , , gb, gb, gbai, Isa 33:4, Amo 7:1, Nah 3:17. (9) lal, Deu 28:42.

It would naturally be a matter of the greatest interest to know if these various names correspond with as many different species. But before replying to this question, (a) we should have to be certain that the ancients, the Easterns, the Hebrews in particular, were capable of making a distinction similar to that of genus and species used by modern scholars; (b) we should have to be equally certain that Biblical writers employed the terms in their language in a strict and rigorous fashion (a thing which even modern writers do not always do); and (c) we should require sufficient data to enable us to assign such and such a Hebrew name to such and such a particular species. Now these three conditions cannot be fulfilled, and in such a case it may well seem chimerical to demand a systematic classification, in accordance with present zoological principles, of the various locusts mentioned in the Bible. We must remember that Oriental languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, possess a considerable choice of synonyms to denote one and the same animal. We note that the LXX Septuagint proceeds on no regular system. It translates the Hebrew by using the terms , , , (), (), , , etc., in a purely arbitrary and, it would appear, conjectural manner, without taking the least care always to translate the same Hebrew by the same Greek word. The same is true of the version of Jerome and of translations into modern languages. The Authorized and Revised Versions has had no better success with its varying use of locust, grasshopper, canker-worm, palmer-worm, caterpillar, and even beetle (for hgb, manifestly a false translation).

We must also avoid the error of thinking that the various terms employed, for example, by Joel and Nahum refer to locusts at various stages in their development. The fact that the order of the four terms gzm, arbeh, yelek, hsl in Joe 1:4 is followed in Joe 2:25 by the order arbch, yelek, hsl, gzm, in itself disproves this theory. Besides, it would be difficult to perceive in the development of the Orthopterous insect four stages easily distinguishable by every observer, since, as we have seen, the insect changes very little from moulting to moulting.* [Note: Perhaps one might instance, to prove that the Hebrews had noticed the successive stages of development in the locust, the fact that in Jer 51:27 yelek is qualified by smr (EV rough): this might be understood to apply to the state of the insect before it has the use of its wings (?).] We must add to the passages of the canonical OT cited above Jdt 2:20, Wis 16:9, Sir 43:17. The term used in these three texts is ; the Hebrew Sirach has arbch.

The names that the Hebrew language gives to locusts prove that these insects were peculiarly feared (a) on account of their great numbers, and (b) on account of their voracity and their power of destruction. In fact, arbch probably goes back to a root meaning to be numerous, to multiply. On the other hand, gzm, hsl, yelek, and solm all have the sense of destruction (literally to clip, to cut, to devour, to swallow). [Note: It is striking to note, in view of these names of serious and even terrible import, that similar insects in Europe (the Locustid) are tricked out with such innocent names as grasshopper (German, Heuschrecke, from Heu, hay, and the old word scricchan, to leap; in French sauterelle); note also the German Heupferd and the Italian cavaletta, due to the resemblance of the grasshoppers head to a horses.] The sense of gb (gb, gbai) and of hgb is a problem. Hargl appears to signify one who gallops, and lal is a more harmless term, referring to the humming of the locusts wings, or rather to the stridulation it makes when it is at rest (a word akin to this is used to denote cymbals).

3. Locusts in the OT.In the books of the OT the locust is sometimes used figuratively to denote smallness (Num 13:33, Isa 40:22), lightness (Ecc 12:5, but the passage is obscure and in dispute), and great numbers (Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, Jer 46:23). But, as a rule, when locusts are mentioned, it is usually as an instrument of destruction or as food.

The former of these last two usages is much the more frequent in the OT. Particularly forcible, vivid, and picturesque descriptions of the destructive power of the locust are given in the passages quoted above from Exodus, Joel, Amos, and Nahum. The fear-inspiring character of these insect invaders, as they advance in regular companies (Pro 30:27), is in no way exaggerated. Locusts are a veritable plague. We find graphic descriptions in the writings of travellers or residents in the Holy Land, such as Wilson, Tristram, Thomson, Van-Lennep, as well as of other writers in various countries. Their accounts have, among others, been collected by Driver (loc. cit. inf.). Van-Lennep even says of locusts (p. 314) that their voracity is such that in the neighbourhood of Broosa, in the year 1856, an infant having been left asleep in its cradle under some shady trees, was found not long after partly devoured by the locusts. See also the singularly graphic passage in which Thomson relates his personal experiences (LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] ii. p. 296 f.). On a sculptured stone found at Babylon is an exact representation (reproduced in Van-Lennep, l.e.) of two locusts devouring a bush. The present writer has seen on both sides of the Dead Sea, and also in the neighbourhood of Jericho and Gadara, locusts at the various stages of development devastating the country and making all verdure disappear in an instant. He has also been a witness of the efforts of the fellahn, under the direction of the officials of the Turkish Government, to check the advance of the insects by lighting along their track fires fed with petroleum. Another device is to compel the Bedawn, proportionally to the number of members of each family, to bring in a fixed weight of the eggs or larvae of locusts. The wind, which brings the swarms of locusts, also drives them hither and thither (cf. Psa 109:23), and sometimes carries them into the sea (Exo 10:19, Joe 2:20). One who has read, for example, Joel 1-2, or has seen with his own eyes the ravages of the locusts, is not surprised to find in Rev 9:3-11 this insect playing an apocalyptical part and accomplishing a mission of destruction.

4. Locusts in the Gospels.But in the Gospelswith which this Dictionary is principally concernedlocusts are never mentioned as devastating insects. In Mat 3:4 and in the parallel passage Mar 1:6 they appear only as an article of food. It is in this character, then, that we have chiefly to study them here. The word used is ; it is said that John the Baptist fed on locusts and wild honey (see art. Honey). An ancient tradition of the Christian Church held that the locusts eaten by the Baptist were not insects, but the pods or husks of a tree, the carob or locust tree (Ceratonia siliqua, Arab. [Note: Arabic.] kharrb). Curiously enough, this old interpretation has been resuscitated in our own times by Cheyne (Encyc. Bibl. ii. cols. 2136, 2499), who sees in the locusts of John the Baptist carobbeans, but for reasons which do not seem to us convincing. In fact, locusts are a well-known food in Eastern countries. Herodotus mentions this (iv. 172); Thomson says (LB [Note: The Land and the Book.] ii. p. 301): Locusts are not eaten in Syria by any but the Bedawn on the extreme frontier. By the natives, locusts are always spoken of as a very inferior article of food, and regarded by most with disgustto be eaten only by the very poorest people. John the Baptist, however, was of that class he also dwelt in the wilderness or desert, where such food was and is still used. There are, according to travellers, several ways of preparing locusts for food. The Bedouins cat locusts, says Burckhardt (p. 239), which are collected in great quantities in the beginning of April. After having been roasted a little upon the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks, with the mixture of a little salt. They are never served up as a dish, but everyone takes a handful of them when hungry. The peasants of Syria do not eat locusts. There are a few poor fellahs in the Haouran, however, who sometimes, pressed by hunger, make a meal of them; but they break off the head and take out the entrails before they dry them in the sun. The Bedouins swallow them entire. The wings and legs are lopped off the body, says Wilson (p. 330), and fried with salt and pepper. They are roasted and eaten as butter upon loaves of bread, says Van-Lennep (p. 319), resembling shrimps in taste, or they are boiled in water with a little salt, dried in the sun, and, being deprived of their wings and legs, are packed in bags for use. They are beaten to a powder, which is mixed with flour and water, made into little cakes, and used as a substitute for bread when flour is scarce. Dried locusts are generally exposed for sale in the markets of Medina, Bagdad, and even Damascus. Palgrave goes so far as to say (p. 346), Locusts are here an article of food, nay, a dainty, and a good swarm of them is begged of Heaven in Arabia no less fervently than it would be deprecated in India or in Syria. When boiled or fried they are said to be delicious, and boiled and fried accordingly they are to an incredible extent. It would appear likewise, to judge from Thomson (l.c.), that occasionally dried, boiled, or fried locusts are eaten with honey. Even horses (Blunt, ii. p. 79) and camels (Daumas, p. 258) are fed on locusts.

The Law of Israel, which strictly forbade the eating of creeping things, insects, etc., made an exception in the case of locusts, which are mentioned under four different names, two of which (solm and hargl) are found only in this one passage (Lev 11:22). The Law characterizes them in this sentence: Yet these may ye eat of all winged creeping things that go upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth.

Literature.Bochart, Hierozoicon, i. pp. 3436, ii. pp. 441496; Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, 1822, p. 238 f., Notes on the Bedouins, 1830, p. 269; William Rae Wilson, Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 1824, pp. 329331; Berggrn, Guide franais-arabe, 1844, p. 702 f.; Gnral E. Daumas, Le Grand Desert, 1856, pp. 257265; Robinson, BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 1867, ii. pp. 205, 340; Wood, Bible Animals, 1869, pp. 596604; Van-Lennep, Bible Lands, 1875, pp. 313319; Franz Delitzsch, Hoheslied und Koheleth, 1875, Excursus by Wetzstein, pp. 445455; Lady Anne Blunt, A Pilgrimage to Nejd2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 1881, i. p. 94, ii. pp. 57 f., 79; Palgrave, Central and Eastern Arabia, 1883, pp. 345347; Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, 1885, pp. 306318; Thomson, The Land and the Book, ii. [1883] pp. 295302, iii. [1886] p. 130 f.; Morris, Bible Natural History, 1896, pp. 211 f., 269 f.; Driver, Joel and Amos (Cambr. Bible for Schools), 1897, Excursus on Locusts, pp. 8291; Tmpel, Die Geradflgler Mitteleuropas, 1901; F. H. Fabre, Souvenirs entomologiques, vi. pp. 196212, 248297.

Lucien Gautier.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Locust

LOCUST

(1) arbeh (root = to multiply) occurs more than 20 times; in Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, Job 39:20, and Jer 46:23 it is, however, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] grasshopper in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] .

(2) chgb (tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] locust in 2Ch 7:13, elsewhere grasshopper), possibly a small locust: see Lev 11:22, Num 13:33, Ecc 12:5, Isa 40:22.

(3) gbm (pl.), Amo 7:1, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] grasshoppers, RV [Note: Revised Version.] locusts, AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] green worms; gbai, Nah 3:17, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] great grasshoppers, RV [Note: Revised Version.] swarms of grasshoppers.

The remaining words are very uncertain. (4) gzm, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] palmer worm (i.e. caterpillar). (5) yeleq, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) canker-worm. (6) chsl, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] caterpillar. (Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25 etc.) may all be stages in the development of the locust, or they may, more probably, be some varieties of grasshoppers. (7) chargl, Lev 11:22 (mistranslated in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] beetle; RV [Note: Revised Version.] cricket), and (8) Solm, Lev 11:22. (tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] bald locust), are also some varieties of locust or grasshopper (it is impossible to be certain of the varieties specified). (9) tsltsal, Deu 28:42, from a root meaning whirring, may refer to the cicada, which fills the countryside with its strident noise all through the hot summer.

Locusts and grasshoppers are included in the family Acridid. The latter are always plentiful, but the locusts fortunately do not appear in swarms, except at intervals of years. The most destructive kinds are Acridium peregrinum and dipoda migratoria. When they arrive in their countless millions, they darken the sky (Exo 10:15). The poetical description in Joe 2:1-11 is full of faithful touches; particularly the extraordinary noise they make (v. 5) when they are all feeding together. Their voracious onslaught is referred to in Isa 33:4, and their sudden disappearance when they rise in clouds to seek new fields for destruction is mentioned in Nah 3:17. They clear every green thing in their path (Exo 10:15). No more suitable figure can be conceived for an invading army (Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12, Jer 46:23). When, some forty years ago, the Anezi Bedouin from E. of the Jordan swarmed on to the Plain of Esdraelon, an eye-witness looking from Nazareth described the plain as stripped utterly bare, just as if the locusts had been over it. When locusts are blown seaward, they fall into the water in vast numbers (Exo 10:19). The present writer has seen along the N. shore of the Dead Sea a continuous ridge of dead locusts washed up. The smell of piles of rotting locusts is intolerable. The feebleness and insignificance of these little insects, as viewed individually, are referred to in Num 13:33, Psa 109:23, Isa 40:22. Locusts are still eaten (cf. Mat 3:4). See Food, 8.

E. W. G. Masterman.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Locust

lokust: The translation of a large number of Hebrew and Greek words:

1. Names:

(1) , ‘arbeh from the root , rabhah, to increase (compare Arabic raba’, to increase). (2) , sal’am, from obsolete root , sal’am, to swallow down, to consume. (3) , hargol (compare Arabic harjal, to run to the right or left, harjalat, a company of horses or a swarm of locusts, harjawan, a kind of locust). (4) , haghabh (compare Arabic hajab, to hide, to cover). (5) , gazam (compare Arabic jazum, to cut off) (6) , yelek, from the root , lakak to lick (compare Arabic laklak, to dart out the tongue (used of a serpent)). (7) , hasl, from the root , hasal, to devour (compare Arabic hausal, crop (of a bird)). (8) , gobh, from the obsolete root , gabhah (compare Arabic jab, locust, from the root jaba’, to come out of a hole). (9) , gebh, from same root. (10) , celacal from root , calal (onomatopoetic), to tinkle, to ring (compare Arabic sall, to give a ringing sound (used of a horse’s bit); compare also Arabic tann, used of the sound of a drum or piece of metal, also of the humming of flies). (11) , akrs (genitive , akrdos; diminutive , akrdion, whence Acridium, a genus of locusts).

2. Identifications:

(1), (2), (3) and (4) constitute the list of clean insects in Lev 11:21 f, characterized as winged creeping things that go upon all fours, which have legs above their feet, wherewith to leap upon the earth. This manifestly refers to jumping insects of the order Orthoptera, such as locusts, grasshoppers and crickets, and is in contrast to the unclean winged creeping things that go upon all fours, which may be taken to denote running Orthoptera, such as cockroaches, mole-crickets and ear-wigs, as well as insects of other orders.

‘Arbeh (1) is uniformly translated locust in the Revised Version (British and American). the King James Version has usually locust, but grasshopper in Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; Job 39:20; Jer 46:23. Septuagint has usually , akrs, locust; but has , brouchos, wingless locust, in Lev 11:22; 1Ki 8:37 (akris in the parallel passage, 2Ch 6:28); Nah 3:15; and , attelebos, wingless locust, in Nah 3:17. ‘Arbeh occurs (Ex 10:4-19) in the account of the plague of locusts; in the phrase as locusts for multitude (Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12); more than the locusts … innumerable (Jer 46:23);

The locusts have no king,

Yet go they forth all of them by bands (Pro 30:27).

‘Arbeh is referred to as a plague in Deu 28:38; 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Psa 78:46; in Joel and in Nahum. These references, together with the fact that it is the most used word, occurring 24 times, warrant us in assuming it to be one of the swarming species, i.e. Pachtylus migratorius or Schistocerca peregrina, which from time to time devastate large regions in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.

Salam (2), English Versions of the Bible bald locust, occurs only in Lev 11:22. According to Tristram, NBH, the name bald locust was given because it is said in the Talmud to have a smooth head. It has been thought to be one of the genus Tryxalis (T. unguiculata or T. nasuta), in which the head is greatly elongated.

Hargol (3), the King James Version beetle, the Revised Version (British and American) cricket, being one of the leaping insects, cannot be a beetle. It might be a cricket, but comparison with the Arabic (see supra) favors a locust of some sort. The word occurs only in Lev 11:22. See BEETLE.

Haghabh (4) is one of the clean leaping insects of Lev 11:22 (English Versions of the Bible grasshopper). The word occurs in four other places, nowhere coupled with the name of another insect. In the report of the spies (Num 13:33), we have the expression, We were in our own sight as grasshoppers; in Ecc 12:5, The grasshopper shall be a burden; in Isa 40:22, It is he that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. These three passages distinctly favor the rendering grasshopper of the English Versions of the Bible. In the remaining passage (2Ch 7:13), …if I command the locust (English Versions) to devour the land, the migratory locust seems to be referred to. Doubtless this as well as other words was loosely used. In English there is no sharp distinction between the words grasshopper and locust.

The migratory locusts belong to the family Acridiidae, distinguished by short, thick antennae, and by having the organs of hearing at the base of the abdomen. The insects of the family Locustidae are commonly called grasshoppers, but the same name is applied to those Acridiidae which are not found in swarms. The Locustidae have long, thin antennae, organs of hearing on the tibiae of the front legs, and the females have long ovipositors. It may be noted that the insect known in America as the seventeen-year locust, which occasionally does extensive damage to trees by laying its eggs in the twigs, is a totally different insect, being a Cicada of the order Rhynchota. Species of Cicada are found in Palestine, but are not considered harmful.

The Book of Joel is largely occupied with the description of a plague of locusts. Commentators differ as to whether it should be interpreted literally or allegorically (see JOEL). Four names ‘arbeh (1), gazam (5), yelek (6) and hasl (7), are found in Joe 1:4 and again in Joe 2:25.

For the etymology of these names, see 1 above. Gazam (Amo 4:9; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25) is in the Revised Version (British and American) uniformly translated palmer-worm Septuagint , kampe, caterpillar). Hasl in the Revised Version (British and American) (1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Psa 78:46; Isa 23:4; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25) is uniformly translated caterpillar. The Septuagint has indifferently brouchos, wingless locust, and , erusbe, rust (of wheat). Yelek (Psa 105:34; Jer 51:14, Jer 51:27; Joe 1:4; Joe 2:25; Nah 3:15, Nah 3:16) is everywhere canker-worm in the Revised Version (British and American), except in Psa 105:34, where the American Standard Revised Version has grasshopper. the King James Version has caterpillar in Psalms and Jeremiah and canker-worm in Joel and Nahum. Septuagint has indifferently akris and brouchos. Palmerworm and canker-worm are both Old English terms for caterpillars, which are strictly the larvae of lepidopterous insects, i.e. butterflies and moths.

While these four words occur in Joe 1:4 and Joe 2:25, a consideration of the book as a whole does not show that the ravages of four different insect pests are referred to, but rather a single one, and that the locust. These words may therefore be regarded as different names of the locust, referring to different stages of development of the insect. It is true that the words do not occur in quite the same order in 14 and in Joe 2:25, but while the former verse indicates a definite succession, the latter does not. If, therefore, all four words refer to the locust, palmer-worm, canker-worm, caterpillar and the Septuagint erusibe, rust, are obviously inappropriate.

Gobh (8) is found in the difficult passage (Amo 7:1), …He formed locusts (the King James Version grasshoppers, the King James Version margin green worms, Septuagint akris) in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and (Nah 3:17) in …thy marshals (are) as the swarms of grasshoppers (Hebrew gobh gobhay; the King James Version great grasshoppers), which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. The related gebh (9) occurs but once, in Isa 33:4, also a disputed passage, And your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar (hasl) gathereth: as locusts (gebhm) leap shall men leap upon it. It is impossible to determine what species is meant, but some kind of locust or grasshopper fits any of these passages.

In Deu 28:42, All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust (English Versions of the Bible) possess, we have (10) celacal, Septuagint erusibe). The same word is translated in 2Sa 6:5 and Psa 150:5 bis cymbals, in Job 41:7 fish-spears, and in Isa 18:1 rustling. As stated in 1, above, it is an onomatopoetic word, and in Deu 28:42 may well refer to the noise of the wings of a flight of locusts.

In the New Testament we have (11) akris, locust, the food of John the Baptist (Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6); the same word is used figuratively in Rev 9:3, Rev 9:1; and also in the Apocrypha (Judith 2:20; The Wisdom of Solomon 16:9; and see 2 Esdras 4:24).

3. Habits:

The swarms of locusts are composed of countless individuals. The statements sometimes made that they darken the sky must not be taken too literally. They do not produce darkness, but their effect may be like that of a thick cloud. Their movements are largely determined by the wind, and while fields that are in their path may be laid waste, others at one side may not be affected. It is possible by vigorous waving to keep a given tract clear of them, but usually enough men cannot be found to protect the fields from their ravages.

Large birds have been known to pass through a flight of locusts with open mouths, filling their crops with the insects. Tristram, NHB, relates how he saw the fishes in the Jordan enjoying a similar feast, as the locusts fell into the stream. The female locust, by means of the ovipositor at the end of her abdomen, digs a hole in the ground, and deposits in it a mass of eggs, which are cemented together with a glandular secretion. An effective way of dealing with the locusts is to gather and destroy these egg-masses, and it is customary for the local governments to offer a substantial reward for a measure of eggs. The young before they can fly are frequently swept into pits or ditches dug for the purpose and are burned.

The young are of the same general shape as the adult insects, differing in being small, black and wingless. The three distinct stages in the metamorphosis of butterflies and others of the higher insects are not to be distinguished in locusts. They molt about six times, emerging from each molt larger than before. At first there are no wings. After several molts, small and useless wings are found, but it is only after the last molt that the insects are able to fly. In the early molts the tiny black nymphs are found in patches on the ground, hopping out of the way when disturbed. Later they run, until they are able to fly.

In all stages they are destructive to vegetation. Some remarkable pictures of their ravages are found in Joe 1:6, Joe 1:7, For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my figtree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white (see also Joe 2:2-9, Joe 2:20).

4. Figurative:

Locusts are instruments of the wrath of God (Ex 10:4-19; Deu 28:38, Deu 28:42; 2Ch 7:13; Psa 78:46; Psa 105:34; Nah 3:15-17; The Wisdom of Solomon 16:9; Rev 9:3); they typify an invading army (Jer 51:14, Jer 51:27); they are compared with horses (Joe 2:4; Rev 9:7); in Job 39:20, Yahweh says of the horse: Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? the King James Version Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? Locusts are among the four things which are little upon the earth, but … are exceeding wise (Pro 30:27). Like the stars and sands of the sea, locusts are a type of that which cannot be numbered (Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; Jer 46:23; Judith 2:20). Grasshoppers are a symbol of insignificance (Num 13:33; Ecc 12:5; Isa 40:22; 2 Esdras 4:24).

5. Locusts as Food:

The Arabs prepare for food the thorax of the locust, which contains the great wing muscles. They pull off the head, which as it comes away brings with it a mass of the viscera, and they remove the abdomen (or tail), the legs and the wings. The thoraxes, if not at once eaten, are dried and put away as a store of food for a lean season. The idea of feeding upon locusts when prepared in this way should not be so repellent as the thought of eating the whole insect. In the light of this it is not incredible that the food of John the Baptist should have been locusts and wild honey (Mat 3:4). See INSECTS.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Locust

There are ten Hebrew words which appear to signify ‘locust’ in the Old Testament. It has been supposed, however, that some of these words denote merely the different states through which the locust passes after leaving the egg, viz. the larva, the pupa, and the perfect insectall which much resemble each other, except that the larva has no wings, and that the pupa possesses only the rudiments of those members, which are fully developed only in the adult locust (Michaelis, Supplem. ad Lex. Hebr. ii. 667, 1080). But this supposition is manifestly wrong with regard to four of the terms, because, in Lev 11:22, the word ‘after his kind,’ or species, is added after each of them (comp. Lev 11:14-16). It is most probable, therefore, that all the rest are also the names of species, but we know not how to distinguish the several species from each other.

Locusts, like many other of the general provisions of nature, may occasion incidental and partial evil; but upon the whole they are an immense benefit to those portions of the world which they inhabit; and so connected is the chain of being that we may safely believe that the advantage is not confined to those regions. ‘They clear the way for the renovation of vegetable productions which are in danger of being destroyed by the exuberance of some particular species, and are thus fulfilling the law of the Creator, that of all which he has made should nothing be lost. A region which has been choked up by shrubs and perennial plants and hard half-withered unpalatable grasses, after having been laid bare by these scourges, soon appears in a far more beautiful dress, with new herbs, superb lilies, fresh annual grasses, and young and juicy shrubs of perennial kinds, affording delicious herbage for the wild cattle and game.’ Meanwhile their excessive multiplication is repressed by numerous causes. Contrary to the order of nature with all other insects, the males are far more numerous than the females. It is believed that if they were equal in number they would in ten years annihilate the vegetable system. Besides all the creatures that feed upon them, rains are very destructive to their eggs, to the larvae, pupa, and perfect insect. When perfect, they always fly with the wind, and are therefore constantly being carried out to sea, and often ignorantly descend upon it as if upon land. Myriads are thus lost in the ocean every year, and become the food of fishes. On land they afford in all their several states sustenance to countless tribes of birds, beasts, reptiles, etc.; and if their office as the scavengers of nature, commissioned to remove all superfluous productions from the face of the earth, sometimes incidentally and as the operation of a general law, interferes with the labors of man, as do storms, tempests, etc., they have, from all antiquity to the present hour, afforded him an excellent supply till the land acquires the benefit of their visitations, by yielding him in the meantime an agreeable, wholesome, and nutritious aliment. They are eaten as meat, are ground into flour, and made into bread. They are even an extensive article of commerce. Diodorus Siculus mentions a people of Ethiopia who were so fond of eating them that they were called Acridophagi, ‘eaters of locusts.’ Whole armies have been relieved by them when in danger of perishing. Their great flights occur only every fourth or fifth season. Those locusts which come in the first instance only fix on trees, and do not destroy grain: it is the young before they are able to fly which are chiefly injurious to the crops. Nor do all the species feed upon vegetables; one, comprehending many varieties, the truxalis, feeds upon insects. Latreille says the house-cricket will do so. ‘Locusts,’ remarks a very sensible tourist, ‘seem to devour not so much from a ravenous appetite as from a rage for destroying.’ Destruction, therefore, and not food, is the chief impulse of their devastations, and in this consists their utility; they are in fact omnivorous. The most poisonous plants are indifferent to them; they will prey even upon the crowfoot, whose causticity burns the very hides of beasts. They simply consume everything without predilection, vegetable matter, linen, woolen, silk, leather, etc.; and Pliny does not exaggerate when he says, ‘and even the doors of houses,’ for they have been known to consume the very varnish of furniture. They reduce everything indiscriminately to shreds, which become manure. It might serve to mitigate popular misapprehensions on the subject to consider what would have been the consequence if locusts had been carnivorous like wasps. All terrestrial beings, in such a case, not excluding man himself, would have become their victims. There are, no doubt, many things respecting them yet unknown to us which would still further justify the belief that this, like ‘every’ other ‘work of God is good’benevolent upon the whole.

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

Locust

Authorized as food

Lev 11:22

Used as food

Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6

Plague of

Exo 10:1-19; Psa 105:34-35

Devastation by

Deu 28:38; 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 7:13; Isa 33:4; Joe 1:4-7; Rev 9:7-10

Sun obscured by

Joe 2:2; Joe 2:10

Instincts of

Pro 30:27

Often inaccurately translated grasshopper

Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; Job 39:20; Jer 46:23 Grasshopper

Figurative

Jer 46:23

Symbolic

Rev 9:3-10

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Locust

Locust. A well-known insect which commits terrible ravages on vegetation in the countries which it visits. The common brown locust is about three inches in length, and the general form is that of a grasshopper. Locusts occur in great numbers, and sometimes obscure the sun. Exo 10:15; Jdg 6:5; Jer 46:23. Their voracity is alluded to in Exo 10:12; Exo 10:15; Joe 1:4; Joe 1:7. They make a fearful noise in their flight. Joe 2:5; Rev 9:9. Their irresistible progress is referred to in Joe 2:8-9. They enter dwellings, and devour even the woodwork of houses. Exo 10:6; Joe 2:9-10. They do not fly in the night. Nah 3:17. The sea destroys the greater number. Exo 10:19; Joe 2:20. The flight of locusts is thus described: “It is difficult to express the effect produced on us by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain; the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun considerably weakened. In a moment the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants.” Locusts have been used as food from the earliest times. Lev 11:21-22; Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6. Herodotus speaks of a Libyan nation who dried their locusts in the sun and ate them with milk. The more common method was to pull off the legs and wings and roast the bodies in an iron dish. Then they were thrown into a bag, and eaten like parched corn, each one taking a handful when he chose. Sometimes locusts are ground and pounded, and then mixed with flour and water and made into cakes, or they are salted and then eaten; sometimes smoked; sometimes boiled or roasted; or stewed or fried in butter.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Locust

Locust. A well-known insect, of the grasshopper family, which commits terrible ravages on vegetation in the countries which it visits. “The common brown locust is about three inches in length, and the general form is that of a grasshopper.”

The most destructive of the locust tribe that occur in the Bible lands are the Edipoda migratoria and the Acridium peregrinum; and as both these species occur in Syria and Arabia, etc., it is most probable that one or other is denoted in those passages which speak of the dreadful devastations committed by these insects.

Locusts occur in great numbers, and sometimes obscure the sun. Exo 10:15; Jdg 6:5; Jer 46:23. Their voracity is alluded to in Exo 10:12; Exo 10:15; Joe 1:4; Joe 1:7. They make a fearful noise in their flight. Joe 2:5; Rev 9:9. Their irresistible progress is referred to in Joe 2:8-9. They enter dwellings, and devour even the woodwork of houses. Exo 10:6; Joe 2:9-10. They do not fly in the night. Nah 3:17. The sea destroys the greater number. Exo 10:19; Joe 2:20.

The flight of locusts is thus described by M. Olivier (Voyage dans l’ Empire Othoman, ii. 424): “With the burning south winds (of Syria), there comes, from the interior of Arabia and from the most southern parts of Persia, clouds of locusts, (Acridium peregrinum), whose ravages to these countries are as grievous and nearly as sudden as those of the heaviest hail in Europe.

We witnessed them twice. It is difficult to express the effect produced on us, by the sight of the whole atmosphere filled on all sides and to a great height, by an innumerable quantity of these insects, whose flight was slow and uniform, and whose noise resembled that of rain: the sky was darkened, and the light of the sun considerably weakened.

In a moment, the terraces of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were covered by these insects, and in two days, they had nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants. Happily, they lived but a short time, and seemed to have migrated only to reproduce themselves and die; in fact, nearly all those we saw the next day had paired, and the day following, the fields were covered with their dead bodies.”

“Locusts have been used as food from the earliest times. Herodotus speaks of a Libyan nation, who dried their locusts in the sun and ate them with milk. The more common method, however, was to pull off the legs and wings and roast them in an iron dish. Then they thrown into a bag, and eaten like parched corn, each one taking a handful, when he chose.” — Biblical Treasury.

Sometimes the insects are ground and pounded, and then mixed with flour and water and made into cakes, or they are salted and then eaten; sometimes smoked; sometimes boiled or roasted; again, stewed, or fried in butter.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

Locust

occurs in Mat 3:4; Mar 1:6, of the animals themselves, as forming part of the diet of John the Baptist; they are used as food; the Arabs stew them with butter, after removing the head, legs and wings. In Rev 9:3, Rev 9:7, they appear as monsters representing satanic agencies, let loose by Divine judgments inflicted upon men for five months, the time of the natural life of the “locust.” For the character of the judgment see the whole passage.

Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

Locust

. The word is probably derived from , which signifies to multiply, to become numerous, &c; because of the immense swarms of these animals by which different countries, especially in the east, are infested. See this circumstance referred to, Jdg 6:5; Jdg 7:12; Psa 105:34; Jer 46:23; Jer 51:14; Joe 1:4; Nah 3:15; Jdt 2:19-20; where the most numerous armies are compared to the arbeh, or locust.

The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the name of grylli. The common great brown locust is about three inches in length, has two antennae about an inch long, and two pairs of wings. The head and horns are brown; the mouth, and insides of the larger legs, bluish; the upper side of the body, and upper wings, brown; the former spotted with black, and the latter with dusky, spots. The back is defended by a shield of a greenish hue; the under wings are of a light brown hue, tinctured with green, and nearly transparent. The general form and appearance of the insect is that of the grasshopper so well known in this country. These creatures are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. They were employed as one of the plagues for the punishment of the Egyptians; and their visitation was threatened to the Israelites as a mark of the divine displeasure. Their numbers and destructive powers very aptly fit them for this purpose. When they take the field, they always follow a leader, whose motions they invariably observe. They often migrate from their native country, probably in quest of a greater supply of food. On these occasions they appear in such large flocks as to darken the air; forming many compact bodies or swarms, of several hundred yards square. These flights are very frequent in Barbary, and generally happen at the latter end of March or beginning of April, after the wind has blown from the south for some days. The month following, the young brood also make their appearance, generally following the track of the old ones. In whatever country they settle, they devour all the vegetables, grain, and, in fine, all the produce of the earth; eating the very bark off the trees; thus destroying at once the hopes of the husbandman, and all the labours of agriculture: for though their voracity is great, yet they contaminate a much greater quantity than they devour; as their bite is poisonous to vegetables, and the marks of devastation may be traced for several succeeding seasons. There are various species of them; which consequently have different names; and some are more voracious and destructive than others, though all are most destructive and insatiable spoilers. Bochart enumerates ten different kinds which he thinks are mentioned in the Scripture.

Writers in natural history bear abundant testimony to the Scriptural account of these creatures. Dr. Shaw describes at large the numerous swarms and prodigious broods of those locusts which he saw in Barbary. Dr. Russel says, Of the noxious kinds of insects may well be reckoned the locusts, which sometimes arrive in such incredible multitudes, that it would appear fabulous to give a relation of them; destroying the whole of the verdure wherever they pass. Captain Woodroffe, who was for some time at Astrachan, a city near the Volga, sixty miles to the north-west of the Caspian Sea, in latitude 47 , assures us, that, from the latter end of July to the beginning of October, the country about that city is frequently infested with locusts, which fly in such prodigious numbers as to darken the air, and appear at a distance as a heavy cloud. As for the Mosaic permission to the Jews of eating the locusts, Lev 11:22, however strange it may appear to the mere English reader, yet nothing is more certain than that several nations, both of Asia and Africa, anciently used these insects for food; and that they are still eaten in the east to this day. Niebuhr gives some account of the several species of locusts eaten by the Arabs, and of their different ways of dressing them for food. The Europeans, he adds, do not comprehend how the Arabs can eat locusts with pleasure; and those Arabs who have had no intercourse with the Christians will not believe, in their turn, that these latter reckon oysters, crabs, shrimps, cray- fish, &c, for dainties. These two facts, however, are equally certain. Locusts are often used figuratively by the prophets, for invading armies; and their swarms aptly represented the numbers, the desolating march of the vast military hordes and their predatory followers, which the ancient conquerors of the east poured down upon every country they attacked.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary

Locust

Psa 109:23 (a) This is emblematic of the weakness and the helplessness of our blessed Lord as He was sent from one persecutor to another just as the wind blows the locusts about.

Pro 30:27 (c) This is a figure used to illustrate the blessedness of mutual fellowship regardless of leadership. Also that the problems of life require united effort though there be no adequate leadership.

Rev 9:3 (c) Here we see a type of some form of curse which GOD will send upon the earth against His enemies.

Fuente: Wilson’s Dictionary of Bible Types