Author Archives: davidcox

Unicorn

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Unicorn.

A unicorn is a mythical creature, similar to a horse, with a single spiral horn growing out of its forehead. In the Middle Ages, the unicorn appeared in paintings as a symbol of purity. Many people believed an animal like this really lived. In the Bible, most verses that refer to the unicorn emphasize its great strength (Num. 23:22; 24:8; Deut. 33:17). The biblical writer may have had the aurochs in mind. This horned wild ox was so large and powerful that no one could control or tame it (Job 39:9-10; Ps. 22:21; 92:10; Is. 34:7).
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Fly

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Fly.

The “flies” of the Bible included the common housefly, as well as other two-winged insects. Many of these were biting insects. This explains the “devouring” flies of (Psalm 78:45). The flies visited as a plague upon the Egyptians probably included the housefly and the stinging sand fly, as well as gnats and mosquitoes.

The prophet Isaiah’s reference to the “fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt” (Isa 7:18) may have been a symbol of swarms of Egyptian soldiers. Or, he could have had in mind the dreaded tsetse fly of Africa, which spreads sleeping sickness. Still another possibility is the olive fly, which could ruin a crop of ripe olives.

Solomon’s “fly in the ointment” (Eccl. 10:1) has become a proverb. So also has Jesus’ “straining out a gnat”– which referred to the custom of straining wine to take out the impurities before it was served (Matt. 23:24).

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Grasshopper

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Grasshopper.

Numerous references to grasshoppers and locusts in the Bible show what an impact these insects had in the hot, dry lands of the ancient world. Some of these references are literal (Ex. 10:4-19) while others are symbolic (Num. 13:33).

The terms grasshopper and locust are often used interchangeably. A locust is one kind of grasshopper. Another term used rarely for these insects is katydid (Lev. 11:22), (NIV). It has a brown-colored body two to three inches long. Airborne, with two sets of wings, the locust was dreaded because of its destructive power as a foliage-eating insect in the ancient world.

The eighth plague that God sent upon the Egyptians was an invasion of locusts. Millions of these insects may be included in one of these swarms, which usually occur in the spring. Locusts in such numbers speedily eat every plant in sight, totally destroying the crops. A locust plague is practically unstoppable. Water does not work; for when enough locusts drown, the survivors use their bodies as a bridge. They have also been known to smother fires that had been set to destroy them. Even modern farmers wrestle with this problem, often resorting to poisoning the adults and harrowing fields in the fall to destroy the eggs before they can hatch in the spring.

(Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation) presents a nightmarish prospect: locusts with special powers will be unleashed upon mankind for five months.

Locusts do not always appear in swarms. Hot weather normally brings a few solitary grasshoppers and locusts to the Holy Land. But scientists have learned that under certain conditions of climate and food scarcity, chemical changes take place in the female locust. These cause more eggs to hatch, sending millions of locusts into the air at the same time in search of food.

Many people, including the Jews, eat locusts (Lev. 11:22). These insects may be boiled, fried, or dried. Locusts were part of the wilderness diet of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4).

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Locust

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Locust (see Grasshopper).

Source: [Anon-Animals]

* Attacus (Leviticus 11:22). — Instead of this Latin word, the A.V. reads bald-locust. According to the tradition enshrined in the Talmud, the common truxalis, a locust with a very long smooth head is probably signified.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_animals_in_the_Bible]

The Locust.

The locust is called an insect, as well as the ant and the bee, but instead of being harmless, as they usually are, it does a great deal of injury. It is also much larger than they; for it is generally three inches long, and sometimes as much as four or five. The plague of the locusts was the eighth that God sent upon the Egyptians, because they would not let the children of Israel go, as he commanded; and it was a very terrible one indeed. The Bible says, “They covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field through all the land of Egypt.” This is the way they often do in those countries, though perhaps it is not common for so many to come at once.

They fly in companies of thousands together, and so close that they look like a great black cloud. When they alight on the ground they all come down in a body, and immediately begin to devour the grass and grain; they also eat the leaves of the trees, and every green thing they can find. The people dread them more than they do the most terrible fire or storm; because though they are so small, they destroy all the food, and leave the people ready to starve. When the inhabitants see them coming over their fields, they try to drive them away by making loud noises or by kindling fires; but this does little good.

It is said that a great army of locusts came over the northern part of Africa about a hundred years before the birth of Christ. They consumed every blade of grass wherever they alighted; also the roots, and bark, and even the hard wood of the trees. After they had thus eaten up every thing, a strong wind arose, and after tossing them about awhile, it blew them over the sea, and great numbers of them were drowned. Then the waves threw them back upon the land, all along the sea-coast, and their dead bodies made the air so unwholesome that a frightful pestilence commenced, and great numbers of men and animals died.

Many travellers have seen these great clouds of locusts, and describe them in their books. One says that he saw a company consisting of so many that they were an hour in passing over the place where he was. They seemed to extend a mile in length and half a mile in width. When he first noticed them, they looked like a black cloud rising in the east; and when they came over head, they shut out the light of the sun, and made a noise with their wings like the rushing of a water-fall. Another swarm is mentioned which took four hours to pass over one spot; and they made the sky so dark that one person could not see another at twenty steps off.

You can now understand two or three passages from the Bible which I will mention. David says in the 23d verse of the 109th Psalm, “I am tossed up and down as the locust;” that is, as the clouds of locusts are tossed about by the wind. In the first chapters of Joel God threatens to send the locust among the people, because of their wickedness; and he says of them, “Before their faces the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. They (the locusts,) shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.” An English clergyman who visited countries where the locusts are found, a few years ago, says that these verses describe them exactly as he has himself seen them.

Locusts are sometimes used for food. The Arabs boil them with salt, and then add a little oil or butter; sometimes they toast them by the fire before eating them. A traveller speaks of seeing the Arab women employed in filling bags with locusts, which were to be used for food. You know it is said in the New Testament that John the Baptist “did eat locusts and wild honey,” but it is not quite certain that this insect was meant; perhaps it was the fruit of the locust-tree that he ate.

[Cook, Scripture Alphabet of Animals]