Locusts are unable to fly against the wind. Their wings become entangled, and they are ‘ tossed Bp and down’ (Ps 109*°), and fall to the ground. They are certainly used as food, and were doubt- less part of the diet of John the Baptist (Mt 3"). The writer has seen them toasted and eaten. The Arabs stew them with clarified butter, after tearing off the head, legs, and wings. They are said to be dried and ground to meal in some places.
Locusts are mentioned once in the NT (Rev 9%") as monsters, in the likeness of war horses, with hair like women, teeth like lions, breastplates like iron, tails with stings like scorpions, their king being Abaddon or Apollyen; the angel of the abyss.
See on the whole subject of this article the elaborate ‘Exeursus on Locusts’ in Driver's Joel and Amos, 82 ff., and the literature there cited.
G. E. Post.
LOD, LYDDA (ὦ; LXX Aéé in 1Ch 8” [A; B om.], Ezr 25, Neh 757, Λύδδα in Neh 11° [ABy* om.], 1 Mae 11%; NT Λύδδα) is identified as the Arabic Ludd, a village in the plain of Sharon about 10 miles S.E. of Joppa on the way to Jeru- salem. From a distance its appearance is pleasant and picturesque, occupying a fertile hollow in the great undulating ara surrounded by gardens of olive and various fruit trees, and situated near a valley that leads into the river ‘Aujeh. The villags itself is very dilapidated, a haunt of dirt diseases, the effect of modern squalor being inten-
sified by the presence of noble ruins testifying to |
former ele
1. Bible references.—Lod is alluded to in 1 Ch 8" ns having been built along with Ono by Shemed of the tribe of Benjamin. The inhabitants of these villages shared in the tribulations of the
LOD, LYDDA 131
of them returned under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah (Ezr 2", Neh 77 11%),
The most interesting allusion to Lydda is in the NT, where it is recorded that St. Peter visited the saints there, and healed A®neas, and when there received the urgent request to go to Joppa on behalf of Dorcas (Ac 9°?-*),
2. General history.—Besides being close to the road from Joppa leading eastward to Jerusalem, Lydda was also on the great caravan route be- tween Babylon and Egypt. Camels laden with rich merchandise from Baghdad, Aleppo, Damas- cus, and the region beyond Galilee, and protected as armed attendants, were constantly detiling through Shechem, resting at Lydda and Ono, and
assing on through Gaza to Egypt. Joseph would
e taken by the Ishmaelites along this route. The manufacture and repair of such requisites for the journey as sacks, saddles, and strappings, would create the skilled labour in cloth, leather, wrod, and metal that made the neighbouring Ono ‘che valley of craftsmen’ (Neh 1155). During the Jewish wars of independence, the frequent sieges, change of ownership, and general lawlessness of Jaffa would encourage the transit of goods by land until, under more settled government, commerce naturally chose the cheaper mode of conveyance by sea. In this way, by a peaceful necessity of trade, apart from the devastations of war, Lydda, like Aleppo and other towns of the caravan route, fell into insignificance and silent decay.
3. Non-biblical references.—Lydda 15 mentioned by Josephus as one of the eleven toparchies or chief sections of the kingdom of Judea over which Jerusalem presided (BJ τα. iii. 5). Along with Apherema and Ramathaim it was taken from Samaria and restored to Jerusalem by Demetrius Nikator, B.c. 152 (1 Mac 10° 11%; Jos. Ant. xm. iv. 9). Its inhabitants were wantonly sold into slavery by Cassius, and restored to freedom by Antony (Jos. Ant. XIV. xi. 2, xii. 2-5). Cestius Gallus, who inflicted such loss upon Joppa, also burnt Lydda and killed about fifty of its inhabit- ants, the majority being absent attending the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem (Jos. BJ τι. xix. 1). Soon afterwards it was rebuilt, and was a town of considerable wealth and importance when it surrendered to Vespasian on his way to the siege of Jerusalem (Jos. BJ Iv. viii. 1). About this period Lydda was famous as a seat of Rab- binical learning. In the early Christian centuries it was of sufficient importance to be made the seat of a bishop. Its bishop took part in the Council of Nica, and, later on, Pelagius appeared before an ecclesiastical assembly there on a charge of heresy, and, amid considerable tumult, was ac- quitted.
Lydda and St. George.—The celebrated St. George, called by the Moslems el-Khudr, ‘the ever-green or undying,’ was born at Lydda in the 3rd cent., and is said to have died there. The beautiful cathedral church of St. George was built over his reputed tomb. On account of its fortress- like appearance, it was destroyed by the Moslems when they invaded the land. After being rebuilt with much magnificence by the Crusaders, it was demolished by Saladin in 1191, after the disaster of Kurn Hattin, where a disorderly rabble, bearing the name and mission of the Cross, was annihil- ated on the reputed Mount of Beatitudes.
After so many years of conflict, the church now enjoys a truce of dilapidation, with a mosque in one end of the ruin and a Greek chureh in the
other. From the 2nd cent. onwards Lydda was called Diospolis, but the old name was never quite su;