חרגל. It occurs only Lev. xi, 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 scarabæus,
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 LOCUST.
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 scarabæus,
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 LOCUST.