Locust
אַרְבֶּה (arbeh)
Leaping insects are permitted (Lev 11:21-22)
Would you eat it?
Mentioned in 24 verses (KJV)
Description
Locusts were one of the few insects explicitly permitted under the law, distinguished by legs made for leaping rather than merely crawling. John the Baptist lived on them in the wilderness, paired with wild honey.
Key verses
“Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.”
Leviticus 11:22
“And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”
Matthew 3:4
Fun fact
Locusts are still eaten in parts of the Middle East and North Africa today, a practice Leviticus 11:22 expressly permitted.
All 24 referencesshow
- 1 Kings 8:37
- 2 Chronicles 6:28
- 2 Chronicles 7:13
- Deuteronomy 28:38
- Deuteronomy 28:42
- Exodus 10:4
- Exodus 10:12
- Exodus 10:13
- Exodus 10:14
- Exodus 10:19
- Isaiah 33:4
- Joel 1:4
- Joel 2:25
- Leviticus 11:22
- Mark 1:6
- Matthew 3:4
- Nahum 3:15
- Nahum 3:17
- Proverbs 30:27
- Psalms 78:46
- Psalms 105:34
- Psalms 109:23
- Revelation 9:3
- Revelation 9:7