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LOCUST
LONGS UFFEKING
contradistinction to the usiial habits and tastes of locusts, they are couinianded not to liurt ' 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^). 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 (10^) their mission is to ' eat the residue of that which is escaped, which re- maineth 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 voca- tion— they are sent forth as the messengers of God's wrath upon ' those men which have not the seal of God on their foreheads' (Rev 9^), whom they are to torment with ' the torment of a scor- pion' for ' five months.'
The appearance of these particular locusts is as unusual and unexpected as their mission (9'''^"). ' 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 Jl 2*, and is a metaphor ' chosen partly on account of their sjieed and compact array, but chietly 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 feat- ui'es are peculiar to the locusts of the vision ; they liad ' crowns ' on their heads ' like unto gold,' and ' their faces were as men's 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 antennce of locusts.
The locust belongs to the same genus as the grass-hopper (Acrididce). There is a number of different kinds, but the most destructive are the (Edipoda migratoria and the Acridiurn 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 t\\Q 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, tliey liter- allj'' darken the sky (cf. Ex 10^*), while the rattle of their wings is like a fall of rain (cf. Jl 2^). In the drier parts of the country they are at all times abundant, and are a constant source of aimoyance to tlie husbandmen, whose crops they sometimes entirely devour. The larvce 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 ofi" full-grown locusts that can lly, 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 some- what like shrimps.
Literature. — H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible^o, 1911, pp. 306 fif., 813; H. B. Swete, The Apocalyp.ie of St. John, 1907, p. 115 ff., The Gospel according to St. Mark'^,
1902, p. 5f. ; SDB 549; HDB in. 130 f. ; EBi iii. 2S07ff. ; and especially Driver's 'Excursus on Locusts ' in his J'ofZ and Amos, 1S97, pp. SJ-91, cf. also pp. 37-39, 48-63; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book. 1910 ed., p. 407 f. ; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1887, L 79, 80, 142, 391-5, 402. P. S. P. HANDCOCK.
LOIS (Gr. Aw/s). — The word Lois is of Greek origin, related to Xywr and Xoio-ros, 'pleasant,' 'desirable.' Lois was a Christian believer of Lystra and the grandmother of Timothy. Her name is mentioned in 2 Ti l-"" along with Eunice iq.v.), the mother of Timothy. Probably Lois was a Jewess and the mother of Eunice, who in Ac 16^ is described as a believing Jewess who had married a Greek. It is, however, not impossible that Lois may have been the mother-in-law of Eunice and a Gentile, in which case we must assume that she had married a Jew. This theory would account for the fact that both Lois and Eunice are Greek names, and also for the description of Eunice as a Jewess. But it was not uncommon for Hellenistic Jews to bear purely Gentile names, and the sup- position that Lois was the mother of Eunice is on the whole more probable.