Beetle

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

הרגל . It occurs only  Leviticus 11:22 . A species of locust is thought to be there spoken of. The word still remains in the Arabic, and is derived from an original, alluding to the vast number of their swarms. Golius explains it of the locust without wings. The Egyptians paid a superstitious worship to the beetle. Mr. Molyneaux, in the "Philosophical Transactions," says, "It is more than probable that this destructive beetle we are speaking of was that very kind of scarabaeus, which the idolatrous Egyptians of old had in such high veneration as to pay divine worship unto it, and so frequently engrave its image upon their obelisks, &c, as we see at this day. For nothing can be supposed more natural than to imagine a nation, addicted to polytheism, as the Egyptians were, in a country frequently suffering great mischief and scarcity from swarms of devouring insects, should, from a strange sense and fear of evil to come, (the common principle of superstition and idolatry,) give sacred worship to the visible authors of these their sufferings, in hopes to render them more propitious for the future. See FLY and See Locust .

King James Dictionary

BEE'TLE, n.

1. A heavy mallet or wooden hammer,used to drive wedges, beat pavements, &c. called also a stamper, or rammer. 2. In zoology, a genus of insects, the scarabaeus, of many species. The generic characters are, clavated antennae, fissile longitudinally, legs frequently dentated, and wings which have hard cases, or sheaths. The bones of these insects are placed externally, and their muscles within. They are of different sizes, from that of a pin's head, to that of a man's fist. Some are produced in a month, and go through their existence in a year in others, four years are required to produce them, and they live as winged insects a year more. They have various names, as the may-bug, the dorr-beetle, the cock-chaffer, the tumble-dung, the elephant-beetle,&c. The latter, found in South America,is the largest species, being four inches long.

BEE'TLE, bee'tl. To jut to be prominent to hang or extend out as, a cliff that beetles over its base.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (v. t.) To beat with a heavy mallet.

(2): (v. t.) Any insect of the order Coleoptera, having four wings, the outer pair being stiff cases for covering the others when they are folded up. See Coleoptera.

(3): (v. i.) To extend over and beyond the base or support; to overhang; to jut.

(4): (v. t.) A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; - called also beetling machine.

(5): (v. t.) A heavy mallet, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.

(6): (v. t.) To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine; as, to beetle cotton goods.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Beetle, chargol , only in  Leviticus 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.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Beetle ( chargôl ). In RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘cricket’ (  Leviticus 11:22 ), probably a grasshopper or locust. See Locust.

E. W. G. Masterman.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

chargol. This name occurs but once in the list of insects which the Israelites were allowed to eat, and is generally held to be a species of locust.  Leviticus 11:22 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Beetle. See Locust .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In  Leviticus 11:22 , a species of locust.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 11:22

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( חִרְגֹּל Chargol ', q. d. "leaper") occurs only in  Leviticus 11:22, 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, respectively rendered by the Sept. Βροῦχος, ἀττάκη, and ἄκρις, while they translate Chargol by ὀφιομάχης (q. d. "serpent-fighter"), which Suidas explains as being a Wingless Locust (εϊ v δος ἀκρίδος, μὴ ἔχον πτερά ). Pliny (9:29) and Aristotle (Hist. Anim. 9, 6) mention locusts that. are serpent-destroyers. This Hebrews word cannot mean the Beetle. No species of scarabaeus was ever used as food by the Jews, or perhaps any other nation. Nor does any known species answer to the generic description 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 l'Arabie, Copenhague, 1773, p. 33). Hence it is plain that the chargol is some winged creeper, which has at least four feet, which leaps with its two hind jointed legs, and which we might expect, from the permission, to find actually used as food. This description agrees exactly with the locust-tribe of insects, which are well known to have been eaten by the common people in the East from the earliest times to the present day. This conclusion is also favored by the derivation of the word, which signifies to gallop like the English grasshopper and French sauterelle. Although no known variety of locust answers the above description of Pliny and Aristotle, and, indeed, the existence of any such species is denied by Cuvier (Grandsaque's ed. of Pliny, Par. 1828, p. 451, note), yet a sort of ichneumon locust is found in the genus Truxalis (fierce or cruel), inhabiting Africa and China, and comprehending many species, which hunts and preys upon insects. It is also called the Truxalis nasutus, or long. nosed. May not, then, this winged, leaping, insectivorous locust, and its various species, be "the chargol, after its kind," and the ὀφιομάχης of 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 generally 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, Hieroz. pt. 2, lib. 4, 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 Mosaic law in regard to birds and quadrupeds, this having been unquestionably the case with regard to many species of fishes coming within the regulation of having "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. (See Locust).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bē´t 'l (the Revised Version (British and American) Cricket; חרגּל , ḥargōl  ; See Locust ): This name occurs only in  Leviticus 11:22 as one of four winged Jumping insects ( sherec hā - ‛ōph ) 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 ḥargōl are the Arabic ḥarjalet , a troop of horses or a flight of locusts, from ḥarjal , "to gallop," and harjawān , "a wingless locust."