The Hebrew word in question is usually derived from nS"!, "to multiply," op-"be numerous," because the lo- cust is remarkably prohfic ; which, as a general name, is certainly not inapplicable ; and it is thence also inferred that it denotes the G. migratorius, because that species often appears in large numbers. However, the largest flight of locusts upon record, calculated to have extend- ed over five hundred miles, and which darkened the air like an eclipse, and was supposed to come from Arabia, did not consist of the G. migratorius, but of a red spe- cies (Kirby and Spence, Iiitrod. to Entomology, i, 210); and, according to Forskal, the species which now chiefly infests Arabia, and which he names G. gregarius, is dis- tinct from the G. migratorius of Linn. {Encyc. Brit. art. Entomology, p. 193). Others derive the word from 2'^X. "to lie hid" or "in ambush," because the newly- hatched locust emerges from the ground, or because the locust besieges vegetables. Rosenmiiller justly remarks upon such etymologies, and the inferences made from tliem (Scholia i/J Jof?, i, 4), "How precarious truly the reasoning is, derived in this manner from the mere ety- mology of the word, everybody may understand for himself. Nor is the principle otherwise in regard to the rest of the species," He also remarks that the ref- erences to the dcstructivcness of locusts, which are of- ten derived from the roots, simply concur in this, that locusts consume and do mischief. Illustrations of the [iropriety of his remarks will abound as we proceed. Still, it by no means follows from a coincidence of the Hebrew roots, in this or any other meaning, that the fcarnwi among the ancient Jews did not recognise differ- ent species in the different names of locusts. "The Eng- lish wordy/y, from the Saxmi Jh'on, the Heb. t\''J, and its representative "fowl," in the English version (Gen.i. 20, etc.), all express both a general and specific idea. Even a modern entomologist might speak of " the flies"
in a room, while aware that from fifty to one hundred different species annually visit our apartments. The Scriptures use popular language; hence " the multitude," " the devourer," or " the darkener," may have been the familiar appellations for certain species of locusts. The common Greek words for locusts and grasshoppers, etc., are of themselves equally indefinite, yet they also served for the names of species, as a/cpif, the locust generally, from the tops of vegetables, on which the locust feeds ; but it is also used as the proper name of a particular species, as the grasshopper: TtTpaTrrtpvXXic, "four- winged," is applied sometimes to the grasshopper; rpw^- aWig, from rpioyw, "to chew," sometimes to the cater- pillar. Yet the Greeks had also distinct names restrict- ed to particidar species, as ovog, ^oXovpic, /ctpicwn;, etc. The Hebrew names may also have served similar pur- poses,
(2,) Gkb (35, Isa. xxxiii, 4; Sept. nK-pitTtr, Vulgate omits, Engl, "locusts"), or Gob (3iii, Amos vii, 1, tni- yovr) aKpiC'UJv; Aquila, /Sopci^ov [voratrices], locustce, "grasshoppers;" 1^&\\.\\\,V1 , ciTTiXajioc, locustce, "grass- hoppers"). Here the lexicographers, finding no Hebrew root, resort to the Arabic, X35, " to creep out" (of the ground), as the locusts do in spring. But tliis applies to the young of all species of locusts, and Bochart's quo- tations from Aristotle and Plinj' occur unfortunately in general descriptions of the locust, Castell gives anoth- er Arabic root, 3N3, " to cut" or " tear," but this is open to a similar objection. Parkhurst proposes 35, anj-thing gibbous, curved, or arched, and gravely adds, " The lo- cust in the catei-jnllur state, so called from its shape in general, or from its continually hunching out its back in moving." The Sept. word in Nahum, ciTTtXajioc, has already been shown to mean a perfect insect and species. Accordingly, Aristotle speaks of its parturition and eggs {/list. Anim. v, 29; so also Plutarch, iJe JsiJ. et Osir.). It seems, however, not unlikely that it means a wing- less species of locust, genus Podisnui of Latreille. Grass- hoppers, which are of this kind, he includes luider the genus Tettix. Hesychius defines the UTTtXa^ioq as "a small locust," and Pliny mentions it as " the smallest of locusts, without wings" (^Ilistor. Kat. xxix, 5). Accord- ingly, the Sept. ascribes only leaping to it. In Nahum we have the construction '^315 315, locust of the locusts, which the lexicons explain as a vast multitude of lo- custs. Archbishop Newcome suggests that " the phrase is either a double reading where the scribes had a doubt which was the true reading, or a mistaken repetition not expunged." He adds, that we may suppose ''315 the contracted plural for Q'^'^^'f {Improved Version of the Mi- nor Prophets, Pontefr. 1809, p. 188). Henderson imder- stands the reduplication to express " the largest and most formidable of that kind of insect" {Comment, on the Mi- nor Prophets, ad lf)C.). Some writers, led by this pas- sage, have believed that the guh represents the larva state of some of the large locusts; the haliit of halting at night, however, and encamping under the hedges, as described by the prophet, in all probability belongs to the winged locust as well as to the larvce : see Exod. x, 13 : " The Lord brought an east wind upon the land aU that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts." Mr. Barrow (i, 257 S), speaking of some species of South African locusts, says that when the larv.T, which are still more voracious than the parent insect, are on the march, it is impossible to make them turn out of the way, which is usually that of the wind. At sunset the troop halts and divides into separate groups, each occupying in bee-like clusters the neighboring eminences for the night. It is quite possi- ble that the gob may represent the l(i7Ta or nympha state of the insect; nor is the passage from Nahum, "When the sun ariseth they flee away," any objection to this supposition, for the last stages of the larra differ but slight!}' from the nyrnpha, both which states may there- fore be comprehended under one name ; the gob of Nah.