Beetle (Hastings' Dictionary)
The word rendered beetle in the AV and cricket in the RV (Lv ll*') is Si-jn luirgGl. It is an insect of the grasshopper kind, having 'legs above its feet' to leap with. The Heb. root Vi")n hargal, as its cognate karjal in Arab., signifies to leap. The Arab, word hnrjalct signifies a flight of locusts, and harjuw&n, the I and n being inter- changeable, a sort of grasshopper or locust that leaps without flying. See LocuST. G. E. POST. BEEVES, the pi.
of ' beef,' is used in Lv 22"- ", Nu 31^- """•''• " for the animals themselves, not their flesh. Cf.— * A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, la not 80 estimable, profitable neither. As flesh of muttons, beefs, or Koiits.' Shaks. M. of V. I. lil. 68. RV retains all but Lv 22", AV ' a free-will otler- ing in beeves or sheep,' RV 'a free-will otlering of the herd or of the Hock.'
The sing, does not occur in AV or RV, but the Douay Bible (1609) renders Dt 14' ' the pygargue, the wilde beefe (AV ' wild ox '), the cameloparde.' J. Hastings. BEFORE, meaning 'in the presence of, occurs frenuentlj-, and as the tr° of a great variety of Heb. and Gr. words. Notice Gn 11^ ' llaran died before his father Terah ' ('j? Sy 'bcfure the face of,' RV 'in the i>resence of); Sir .'
iC'' 'As thou wast sanctified in us before them, so bo thou magnified among them before us'; 39" 'He seetli from everla.sting to everlasting, and there is nothing wonderful before him ' ; Bar 2 ' Vet have we not prayed before the Lord.' In Gal 3" 'the Scrip ure . . iireached before the gospel unto .Miraham,' the words are a lit. tr. of tlie Greek (Trpori'irD'^''"""'' and b. = ' beforehand,' as RV. See Afork. J. llA.-iTINGS.
This topic also has an entry in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Both articles offer independent scholarly perspectives.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Beetle
Beetle be'-t'-l (the Revised Version (British and American) CRICKET; chargol; See LOCUST): This name occurs only in Le 11:22 as one of four winged Jumping insects (sherets ha-`oph) which may be eaten. It certainly is not a beetle and is probably not a cricket. Probably all four are names of locusts, of which more than 30 species have been described from Syria and Palestine, and for which there are at least 8 Arabic names in use, though with little distinction of species. Closely allied to chargol are the Arabic charjalet, a troop of horses or a flight of locusts, from charjal, "to gallop," and harjawan, "a wingless locust." ⇒See a list of verses on BEETLE in the Bible. Alfred Ely Day ⇒See the definition of beetle in the KJV Dictionary ⇒See also the McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary on Beetle
Beetle, chargol, only in Lev 11:21-22; mentioned between the locust and grasshopper, and among "flying creeping things that go upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth." From an Arabic root, "to leap". The Septuagint translates it the "serpent killer," a kind of locust not having wings. A species of truxalis, some think, one of the orthoptera, like the locust, but with elongated, projecting, conical forehead; carnivorous. It keeps down the multiplication of noisome insects. The beetle was not an article of food, the locust was. (See LOCUST) A "beetle" cannot therefore be meant.
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia