Canker-Worm

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

ילק ,  Psalms 105:34;  Jeremiah 51:27 , where it is rendered caterpillar;   Joel 1:4;  Joel 2:25;  Nahum 3:15 , canker-worm. As it is frequently mentioned with the locust, it is thought by some to be a species of that insect. It certainly cannot be the canker-worm, as our version renders it; for in Nahum, it is expressly said to have wings and fly, to camp in the hedges by day, and commit its depredations in the night. But it may be, as the Septuagint renders it in five passages out of eight where it occurs, the bruchus, or "hedge-chaffer." Nevertheless, the passage,   Jeremiah 51:27 , where the ialek is described as "rough," that is, with hair standing an end on it, leads us very naturally to the rendering of our translators in that place, "the rough caterpillar," which, like other caterpillars, at a proper time, casts its exterior covering and flies away in a winged state. Scheuchzer observes, that we should not, perhaps, be far from the truth, if with the ancient interpreters, we understood this ialek, after all, as a kind of locust; as some species of them have hair principally on the head, and others have prickly points standing out.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In our English Bible, put where the Hebrew means a species of locust,  Joel 1:4   Nahum 3:15,16 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Canker-worm. See Locust .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( יֶלֶק , Yelek, Feeding,  Joel 1:4;  Joel 2:25; "caterpillar,"  Psalms 105:34; Jeremiah 51:14;  Jeremiah 51:27; Sept. Βροῦχος , I.E. locust-grub; but Ἀκρρί , locust, in Jeremiah; Chald. פּ רְהָא , winged locust; Syr. creeping locust) is generally referred to some hairy or caterpillar-like species of locust ( Jeremiah 51:27, סָמִר , Bristly, Auth. Ver. "rough"). Possibly it merely describes the Locust in a certain stage of its growth, viz. just when it emerges from the caterpillar state and obtains the use of its wings; seeNahum 3:16," The Canker-Worm Has Thrown Of ( פָּשִׁט , A. V. Spoileth) its scales [or "Expanded its wings"] and Flown Away;" thus corresponding to the description by Jerome (in loc. Nab.) of the Attelabus ( Ἀττέλαβος ) , or "wingless locust" (Credner, Joel, p. 305; see Bochart, Hieroz. 2: 445). (See Locust).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kaṇ´kẽr - wûrm ( ילק , yeleḳ , ( Joel 1:4;  Joel 2:25;  Nahum 3:15 ,  Nahum 3:16 )): The name given to a larval stage of the Locust (which see). See also Caterpillar .

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Canker-worm [LOCUST]