BEESIITERAH
725
BEETLE
Land of Prom. p. 1). The larger of the two, which lies to the east, is, according to the careful measure- ments of Dr. Robinson, 12i feet diam., and at the time of his visit (Apr. 12) was 44^ feet to the surface of the water; the masonry which encloses the well reaches downward for 28$ feet. The other well is 5 feet diam., and was 42 feet to the water. The curb-stones round the mouth of both wells are worn into deep grooves by the action of the ropes of so many centuries, and " look as if frilled or fluted all round." Round the larger well there are nine, and round the smaller five large stone troughs, some much worn and broken, others nearly entire, lying at a distance of 10 or 12 feet from the edge of the well. There were formerly ten of these troughs at the larger well. The circle around is car- peted with a sward of fine short grass, with crocuses and lilies (Bonar, p. 5, 6, 7). The water is excellent, the best, as Dr. Robinson emphatically records, which he had tasted since leaving Sinai. The five lesser wells, apparently the only ones seen by Van de Velde, are, according to his account and the casual notice of Bonar, in a group in the bed of the wady, not on its north bank, and at a great distance from the other two. No ruins are at first visible; but, on examination, foundations of former dwellings have been traced, dis- persed loosely over the low hills, to the north of the wells, and in the hollows between. They seem to have been built chiefly of round stones, although some of the stones are squared and some hewn, suggesting the idea of a small straggling city. There are no trees or shrubs near the spot. The site of the wells is nearly midway between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the Med- iterranean at Raphsea, or twenty-seven miles south-east from Gaza, and about the same distance south by west from Hebron (20 Roman miles in the Onomast. ; comp. Josephus, Ant. viii, 13, 7). Its present Arabic name, Bir es-Seba, means '"well of the seven," which some take to be the signification also of Beersheba, in allu- sion to the seven ewe-lambs which Abraham gave to Abimelech in token of the oath between them. There is no ground for rendering it by " seven wells," as some have done. — Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. v. See Siiebaii.
Beesh'terah (Ileb. Eeeshterah', l"Hnd"3, prob. house cfAstarte ; Sept. y Booopd v. r. B« Qapd ; Vulg. Board), one of the two Levitical cities allotted to the sons of Gershom, out of the tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan (Josh, xxi, 27). In the parallel list (1 Chron. vi, 71) it appears to be identical with Ashtaroth (q. v.). In fact, the name is merely a contracted form of Beth- Ashtaroth, the "temple of Ashtoreth" (Geseni- us, Thes. p. 196 ; comp. 175). — Smith, s. v.
Beetle ('"Ol1 chargo1/, q. d. " leaper") occurs only in Lev. xi, 22, where it is mentioned as one of four flying creeping things, that go upon all four, which have legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth, which the Israelites were permitted to eat. The other three are the locust, the bald locust, and the grasshopper, re- spectively rendered by the Sept. ftpov\oc, uttcucij, and UKpiQ, while the}' translate chargol by ixpiopaxyc. (q. d. "serpent-fighter"), which Suidas explains as being a wingless locitst (fitioQ dtcpicoe, fiy i'%ov Trrtpo). Pliny (xi, 29) and Aristotle (Hist. Anim. ix, 6) mention locusts that are serpent-destroyers. This Heb. word cannot mean the beetle. No species of searaba?us was ever used as food by the Jews, or perhaps any other nation. Nor does any known species answer to the generic de- scription given in the preceding verse : " This ye may eat of every winged creeper which goeth upon four (feet) ; that which hath joints at the upper part of its hind legs, to leap with them upon the earth" (comp. Niebuhr, Descrip. de VArdbie, Copenhague, 1773, p. 33). Hence it is plain that the chargol is some winged creep- er, which has at least four feet, which leaps with its two hind jointed legs, and which we might expect, from the permission, to find actuallj' used as food. This de- scription agrees exactly with the locust-tribe of insects,
which are well known to have been eaten by the com- mon people in the East from the earliest times to the present day. This conclusion is also favored by tin- derivation of the word, which signifies to gallop like the English grassh'pper and French sauterelle. Al- though no known variety of locust answers the above description of Pliny and Aristotle, and, indeed, the ex- istence of any such species is denied by Cuvier (Grand- saque's ed. of Pliny, Par. 1828, p. 451, note), yet a sort of ichneumon locust is found in the genus Truxalis (fierce
Tnixaiis Xusutvs.
or cruel), inhabiting Africa and China, and compre- hending many species, which hunts and preys upon insects. It is also called the Truxalis nasutus, or long- nosed. May not, then, this winged, leaping, insectiv- orous locust, and its various species, be "the chargol, after its kind," and the o^tojtid^C °f the Septuagint ? or might the name have arisen from the similarity of shape and color, which is striking, between the Truxalis nasutus and the ichneumon ; just as the locust gener- ally is, at this time, called cavalette by the Italians, on account of its resemblance in shape to the horse ? We know that the ancients indulged in tracing the many resemblances of the several parts of locusts to those of other animals (Bochart, Ilieroz. pt. ii, lib.iv, c. 5, p. 475). It may be observed that it is no objection to the former and more probable supposition, that a creature which lives upon other insects should be allowed as food to the Jews, contrary to the general principle of the Mo- saic law in regard to birds and quadrupeds, this hav- ing been unquestionably the case with regard to many species of fishes coming within the regulation of hav- ing "fins and scales," and known to exist in Palestine at the present time — as the perch, carp, barbel, etc. (Kitto's Physical History of Palestine, article Fishes). The fact that the chargol is never made the means of the divine chastisements (for which purpose a locust preying upon insects could scarcely be used), concurs with this speculation. — Kitto; Smith. See Locust. The beetle, however, was very common in Egypt, and is the species called by Linnaeus Blatta Egypiiacus, thought by many to be mentioned in Exod. viii, 21, etc., under the name 2"15, arob', where the A. V. ren- ders it "swarms of flies." See Fly. Beetles are, by naturalists, styled coleopterous insects, from their horny upper wings, or shard ; the species are exceed- ingly numerous, differing greatly in size and color, and being found in almost every country. The order of Coleoptera is divided into many families, of which the scarabseidae and blatta?, or common beetles and cock-chaffers, are known to every one. These crea- tures, like many others in the insect world, deposit their eggs in the ground, where they are hatched, and the appearance of their progeny rising from the earth is by some writers supposed to have suggested to the Egyptian priesthood the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Certain it is that beetles were very common in Egypt, and one of them, thence styled by naturalists Scarolions sacer, was an object of worship; and this fact gives strength to the conjecture that this creature is meant in Exod. viii, as the sacred charac- ter of the object would naturally render its employ- ment as a plague doubly terrible. Besides its being worshipped as a divinity, stones cut in the form of the beetle 6erved as talismans among the Egyptians.