Even of these you may eat: any kind of locust, any kind of katydid, any kind of cricket, and any kind of grasshopper.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 22. Locust. The three former are species of the same kind. The bruchus is a young locust, without wings, (Saint Augustine in Ps. civ.,) and the attachus the least of all. Plin. xxix. 5. The ophiomachus is large, “encounters serpents,” and is destitute of wings. The nations called Acridophagi, received their name from their feeding upon locusts, which are the food of the common people in Syria and Africa. See Plin. xi. 29, and so forth Clenard, in 1541, wrote from Fez, that he had seen the sky darkened with clouds of locusts, which the people endeavoured presently to destroy, and filled wagons with their bodies, for food. Kirsten says, they are very delicious. Arnulph assures us, that they are a finger’s breadth, and are fried in oil by the poor. Raban. in Matt. iii. 4. See Joel 2. Calmet.—There is no need, therefore, of having recourse to crab fish and wild pears, for the Baptist’s food, as Beza has done. Tirinus.