the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Caterpillar
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Caterpillar occurs in the Authorized Version: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; . But it is more than doubtful whether any species of caterpillar is here intended. The name in the original indicates a creature whose chief characteristic is voracity, and which also attaches to all the species of locusts. The ancients, indeed, concur in referring the word to the locust tribe of insects, but are not agreed whether it signifies any particular species of locust, or is the name for any of those states or transformations through which the locust passes from the egg to the perfect insect. The Latin Fathers take it to mean the larva of the locust, and the Greek understand it as the name of an adult locust. On the whole it seems probable that the Hebrew word means a locust, but of which species it is impossible to determine.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Caterpillar'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/c/caterpillar.html.
