Insects

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 13
 
Insects Beetles not mentioned in Scripture—The Locust—Various species of the insect, and different words used to signify it—The Arbeh of Scripture, and its derivation—The two migratory Locusts at rest and on the wing—The Locust swarms—Gordon Cumming's account—Progress of the insect hosts—Vain attempts to check them—Tossed up and down as a Locust—Effect of the winds on the insect—The east and the west winds—Locusts used for food—Ancient and modern travelers—The food of John.
CONSIDERING the vast variety of insects which are found in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, it is somewhat remarkable that so few should be mentioned by name. Not one single coleopteran is mentioned; for, although the Hebrew word chargol, which occurs in Lev. 11:21,2221Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; 22Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. (Leviticus 11:21‑22), is rendered in the Authorized Version as "beetle," the context shows that it could not have been a coleopterous insect at all, but must have belonged to the locusts. We will therefore pass to the insect next in order.