It forms a general argument against this hypothesis, that, according to it, the prophet should enter so deeply and minutely into the natural history of locusts, that a Professor of that science might learn from him. There is nothing analogous to this, either in Scripture generally, or in the Prophets particularly. The difficulty, moreover, increases, when we assume--what has been already proved--that the description refers to the future. The religious impression which the prophet has, after all, solely in view, would not gain, but suffer by such a minute detail in the description of a future natural event,--especially such as a devastation by locusts.
A closer examination proves that the whole explanation of the names of the locusts, upon which the hypothesis is built, is untenable. It appears, then, that the prophet knows of only one kind of locusts, which he divides into four hosts; and that, with the exception of [Hebrew: arbh] the names are not those of natural history, but poetical, and taken from the qualities of the locusts.
Let us first demonstrate that the interpretation of [Hebrew: ilq], upon which _Credner_ founds that of the other names, is inadmissible. This interpretation, he maintains (S. 295), is put beyond all doubt by the passage, Nah. iii. 16: "The [Hebrew: ilq] casts its skin and flies away." The merchants, who constituted the principal part of the population of Nineveh, are, according to him, compared to a [Hebrew: ilq] which flies away, after having cast his skin for the third or last time. But this passage of Nahum, when minutely examined and correctly interpreted, is by itself sufficient to refute that opinion concerning the [Hebrew: ilq]. In ver. 15, it is said concerning Nineveh: "There shall the fire devour thee, the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up, as the _licker_ ([Hebrew: kilq]): make thyself many as the _lickers_, make thyself many as the locusts. Ver. 16: Thou hast multiplied thy merchants like the stars of heaven; _lickers broke through and flew away_. Ver. 17: Thy princes are like locusts, and thy captains are as a host of grasshoppers, which camp on the hedges in the day of cold. The sun has risen, and they flee away, and their place is not known where they are." This passage just proves that [Hebrew: ilq] must be _winged_ locusts. The inhabitants of Nineveh are numerous like the locusts; numerous are her rich merchants; but suddenly there cometh upon them a numberless host of locusts, who rob [Pg 306] them of everything, and fly away. They who rob and fly away, in ver. 16, are not the merchants, but the enemies. This becomes quite evident from the comparison of ver. 15, where quite the same antithesis is found between--"The sword shall eat thee up as the lickers" (Nominat.), and "Make thyself many as the lickers." The verb [Hebrew: pwT], in its common signification, _irruit_, _invasit ad praedam agendam_, is here, in reference to the merchants, very significant. But what is decisive against the explanation of _Credner_ is this:--that the signification "to cast the skin" cannot be established at all, and that the whole sense is utterly unsuitable. For the discourse is not here, by any means, of mercenaries or foreign traders, but of the native merchants of Nineveh, just as, in the subsequent verses, the discourse is about her own nobles. How then could that image be suitable, which must certainly denote a safe transition from one state into a better?--_Credner_ moreover refers to Jer. li. 27, where to [Hebrew: ilq] the quality [Hebrew: smr], _horridus_, is ascribed. This, according to him, is to be referred to the rough, horn-like coverings of the wings of the young locusts. But, according to the context, and to the analogy of the parallel passage, li. 14, we should rather expect that "horrid" is here a designation of the multitude. (Compare the [Greek: hôs akridôn plêthos] of the LXX.) But it is still more natural to give to [Hebrew: smr] the signification of "awful," "terrible." (Compare Ps. cxix. 120, where the verb occurs with the meaning "to shudder.")--That by [Hebrew: ilq], not the young brood, but the winged locusts are to be understood, appears also from a comparison of Ps. cv. 34 with Exod. x. 12 ff. In Exod. a single army of _flying_ locusts overspread Egypt; the Psalmist, in recalling this event to memory, says: "He spake, and the locusts came, and [Hebrew: ilq] without number." From this passage, especially when compared with Ps. lxxvii. 46, where, instead of [Hebrew: ilq], [Hebrew: Hsil] is interchanged with [Hebrew: arbh], which alone is found in Exod., it is very clearly seen that [Hebrew: ilq], the _licker_, is nothing else than a poetical epithet of the locusts.