Even 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.
Locust after his kind - х haa'arbeh (H697) - the common word for locust, and rendered by the Septuagint, akris (G200) (Exodus 10:4; Exodus 10:12-14; Exodus 10:19; Deuteronomy 28:38; Judges 6:5; Judges 7:12; 2 Chronicles 6:28; Job 39:20; Psalms 78:46; Psalms 105:34; Psalms 109:23; Proverbs 30:27; Jeremiah 46:23; Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25). Derived from raabaah (H7235), to be multiplied, it forms an appropriate name for this class of insects, which is distinguished for extraordinary fecundity; and it is used as a collective noun in connection with verbs both singular and plural, as is also the corresponding Greek term. In some passages it is associated with other appellatives of the locust tribe, as in Psalms 78:46; Joel 1:4, where, standing second in the enumeration, it evidently denotes a particular species-namely, (Gryllus gregarius, the common migratory locust-as it seems for the same reason to do in this passage. Here, however, 'arbeh (H697) is placed first, either on account of its vast numbers, or its rapacity and power of destructiveness. The Septuagint renders it brouchos, which is used elsewhere in that version (1 Kings 8:37; Nahum 3:15) to express the same ideas of immense multitude and desolating tendency.]
The bald locust after his kind, х hacaal`aam (H5556); Septuagint, attakees]. We are unable to identify this with any particular species, though the circumstance of its baldness may be explained by what Tychsen says, on the authority of the Talmud, that this kind of locust 'has a smooth head.'
The beetle after his kind, х hachargol (H2728)]. "The beetle" certainly is an improper translation, because the scaraboeus was not an article of food with the Jews, nor with any other people; and it does not at all answer the generic description of insect given in the preceding verse. The general belief is, that chargol refers to some species of locust; but no clue is afforded toward an identification of it by the corresponding name in the Septuagint [hofiomachees, a serpent-fighter] - a name which seems founded on the absurd fable related by Aristotle ('Hist. of Anim.;' 9:9, and Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.,' 11:35), that there is a class of locusts which attacked and preyed upon serpents.
A learned writer-J.F. Denham ('Biblical Cyclopaedia') - has suggested that the name adopted by the Septuagint might have arisen from the striking resemblance of the chargol, in form and colour, to the Ichneumonidoe, and be applied to the genus is no evidence that the genus Truxalis is insectivorous, and the strong presumption is, that, like the rest of the locust family, they feed on the vegetable produce of the soil.
And the grasshopper after his kind, х hechaagaab (H2284)]. This name, according to Gesenius, is derived from an Arabic root to veil, to hide-implying that the swarms of locusts 'cover the ground and obscure the sun' [Septuagint, akris (G200), and that version renders it in the same way in many other passages (Numbers 13:33; Isaiah 40:22; Ecclesiastes 12:5; 2 Chronicles 7:13)]. According to Tychsen, it is the Gryllus coronatus; but to Oedman it is a small species of locust. These, however, are mere conjectures.
Michaelis thought that the names here specified denoted the locust, first, in the larva, secondly, in the pupa state, and in the third and fourth progressive stages of its growth to maturity. But the circumstance of their being represented as winged (Leviticus 11:23), and described each "after his kind," is fatal to this theory; and the prevailing opinion is, that those named were different genre of the locust family, which, from their possessing the requisite properties, were declared edible by the Israelites; and they are eaten still by the common people in Oriental countries, who fry them in olive oil. When sprinkled with salt, dried, smoked, and roasted, they are said by some to taste not unlike red herrings; by Dr. Shaw they are compared to cray-fish, and by others to shrimps or prawns. They are much prized by all the nomad Arabs, except, strange to say by the Arabs about Sinai (Burckhardt).