5. bsby (pausal form) zéJdzal (Dt 28%), is tr. by the LXX ἐρυσίβη, and Vulg. rubigo = blight or mildew. But it is much more probable that this is a word referring to the whizzing, whirring, or rushing of the wings of the locusts (ef. Is 18"), or the stridulation (of legs against sheath of wing).
6. [33] géb, only in pl. o33 (Is 33*); 3) gébai ‘Am 71, AV ‘grasshoppers,’ m. ‘green worms,’ RV
ie ee ΝΙΝ
locusts’); 23) gdb, ‘353 gébai (Nah 317), AV ‘great asshoppers,’ RV ‘swarms of grasshoppers.’ The
XX tr. all these ἀκρίς. Some have supposed (see Driver on Am 7') this word to refer to the larval state of the locust, but there is no certain proof of it.
7. 01} gazam, ‘lopper’ or ‘shearer.’ The two lists of four devourers (Jl 14 2%) have perplexed commentators. ’Arbeh, which is second in the first list and first in the second, is, as seen above, the most generic name for locust. In the first list it is said that that which the gazam, ‘palmerworm,’ hath left hath the 'arbeh, ‘locust,’ eaten; that which the’arbeh hath left hath the yelek, ‘cankerworm,’ eaten ; and that which the yelek hath left hath the Adsil, ‘caterpillar,’ eaten. In the second list it is said, ‘I will restore to you the years which the ’arbeh hath eaten, the yelek, and the hasil, and the gazam.’ This dis- crepancy in the order in lists found in successive passages of the same author, creates an insuper- able difficulty in determining with certainty the destroyers intended. The attempt to identify them as successive steps in the development of the locust is defeated by the want of accord between the two passages. (See PALMERWORM).
8. p>» yelek, prob. ‘lopper,’ ἀκρίς, βροῦχος, bruchus, cankerworm, caterpillar. The expression (Nahi 315-18) «the sword shall devour thee like the yelek ; make thyself many as the yelek; make thyself many as the ’arbeh ... the yelek spoileth (m. spreadeth himself) and flieth away, has been supposed to imply that the yelek is the larval stage of the locust up to the time of the evolution of its wings. But as it issaid that the yelek flies away, the passage is not decisive. The yelek is spoken ot as coming after the ’arbeh (Ps 105), before and after (] 1* 2%). In the passage in Ps, AV has ‘caterpillar, RV ‘cankerworm.’ In Joel both VSS have ‘cankerworm.’ In Jer 5177 AV has ‘caterpillars, RV ‘cankerworm.’ In the latter verse the creature is said to be ‘rough.’
9. Son hasil, ‘finisher,’ ἀκρίς, βροῦχος, ἐρυσίβη, rubigo, erugo, caterpillar. This diserepancy οἵ tr. in the VSS makes the meaning of this word uncertain. It occurs after ’arbeh (1 Καὶ 887, 2 Ch 6%), before it (Ps 785, Is 334), after yelek (J1 1. 2”). Tn all the passages the context seems to point to the destroying locust in some of its forms.
The destructiveness of locusts is often referred to in Scripture. It is compared with that of a mighty army (J12*°), They are perhaps the most terrible of all the scourges of Bible lands. Their swarms fill the air, darkening the sky, and the noise of tneir wings resembles the pattering of aheavyrain. The fly with great rapidity, and towards nightfall they light wherever they may happen to be; and such are their numbers that they often break the branches of the trees to which they cling. The flying locust eats comparatively little, but wiil not disdain any green thing that may be in his way But as the swarm invariably resumes its flight as soon as the sun has warmed it a little (Nah 317), and does not return, it has not time to destroy all the vegetation. Often a swarm comes and goes away without having done much harm. But such of the females as are ready to lay their eggs begin as soon as they alight to moisten the spot of eartli with a secretion from their tails, and excavate in the softened soil holes in which they deposit the ovisac, which often contains as many as a hundred eggs. The next morning the swarm flies away, and at night other females deposit their eggs at their new resting-places. It is the larve of these eggs which work the devastation which makes the locust so great a scourge. When a swarm of
locusts appears, the first care of the owners of lands and gardens is to prevent them from alight- or this purpose they beat
ing on their grounds.
LOD, LYDDA
pans, and shout, and fire guns, and make all manner of noise. The locusts, which are easily frightened, may thus be compelled to seek another resting-place. But finally the vast swarm alights. The people then pour out into the fields and gar- dens, and catch as many as possible, and place them in sacks, in which they are either pounded to death or drowned. The same hunt is repeated the next morning, before the sun is up, while the locusts, chilled by the night air, and weighted with the dew, are still unable to fly (Nah 317. As soon as they are gone the search for their eggs begins. The government either enforces a per capita con- tribution of these eggs, or offers a price for them by weight. With all the exertions of many hun- dreds of persons, however, vast numbers of the eggs escape their search, and in about fifteen to twenty days hatch out. The black larve now spread like a pall over the land, eating every green thing, even stripping the bark off the trees. As the cannot fly, they convert the district around whic they were hatched into a desert, until, after a month to forty days, their wings are grown, and they fly away to begin in other places their round of devastation. The Arab. name for them is jerdd, from a root signifying ¢o strip. The march of these destroyers is arrested in various ways. The people dig trenches in their pathway, and, when these are full of the creatures, turn back the earth and bury them, or turn water into the trenches and drown them. ‘They often kindle fires in their path- way, and drive them into the flames. Besides the damage done by locusts in their various stages of development in devouring vegetation, they choke the wells and streams, which are often filled by theic innumerable carecases, and so defiled that their waters are no longer drinkable. When driven by strong winds into the sea or rivers, their bodies are piled in prodigious heaps along the shore or bank, and breed pestilence by their intolerable ellluvia.