April, 1918 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 27 
the term bald locust, certainly harmless translating. For chagab 
they employed the familiar word grasshopper. For chargol the 
task was less easy. The Orthopterous names had run out, and, 
too, there is no other occurrence in literature of the word chargol. 
It might mean almost any edible insect, and no etymological kin 
has ever been discovered. So the translators took the most in- 
nocuous word in their vocabulary and called the beast beetle. 
Similar difficulties assailed the King James translators when 
they came to Joel. It may be well to dwell a little upon these 
passages for no Homer ever rose to heights above the simple 
grandeur of this Hebrew minor Prophet. 
Joel 2-4: “ Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabi- 
tants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the 
days of your fathers? 
“ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their chil- 
dren, and their children another generation.” 
The next verse as translated by Rotherham, the Emphasized 
Bible: 
“That which was left by the creeping locust hath the swarm- 
ing locust eaten, and that which was left by the swarming locust 
hath the grass locust eaten; and that which was left by the grass 
locust hath the corn locust eaten.” 
Then to return to the King James version, Joel, II, 3-4: “A 
fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth; 
behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape 
them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, 
and as horsemen, so shall they run.” 
In Joel, II, 25, the same words recur: “ And I will restore to 
you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and 
the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I 
sent among you.” 
How far Joel, mournful singer of Israel, discriminated in his 
own mind in these passages between one species of insect and 
another is not a profitable speculation. The import is clear 
enough. Some theorize that locusts in different stages of de- 
velopment are referred to, others make more variety by introduc- 
ing Lepidopterous caterpillars for two of them. The names in 
