the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Beetle
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or 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 .
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Beetle'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/b/beetle.html. 1831-2.
