Answers about…
grasshoppers in the Bible

In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, “grasshopper” most often renders the Hebrew word חָגָב (ḥāgāb / chagav). It is one of several related terms for hopping insects in the order Orthoptera (locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids). Translators do not always use the words with modern entomological precision, and older versions (especially the King James Version) sometimes blur “locust” and “grasshopper.”

The main Hebrew terms

The Hebrew Bible uses about nine words for these insects. The most important for the English word “grasshopper” are:

• ’arbeh (אַרְבֶּה) — the most common term (about 24 times). It almost always means the swarming, migratory locust of the Egyptian plague and the oracles of Joel and Nahum. The KJV occasionally rendered it “grasshopper” (Judges 6:5; 7:12; Job 39:20; Jeremiah 46:23); later versions usually correct this to “locust.”

• ḥāgāb (חָגָב) — the word most consistently translated “grasshopper.” It appears in Leviticus 11:22 (one of the four permitted kinds), Numbers 13:33 (“we seemed like grasshoppers”), Isaiah 40:22 (people of the earth are like grasshoppers), Ecclesiastes 12:5, and 2 Chronicles 7:13 (sometimes rendered “locust” there because it is sent to devour the land).

  What ḥāgāb probably refers to

  Scholars cannot identify the exact species. Some older lexicons suggested ḥāgāb was a smaller or non-swarming grasshopper, in contrast to the plague locust (’arbeh). Others treat it as another locust or as a more general term that later became a catch-all for edible hopping insects. In the Leviticus list it is distinguished from ’arbeh, and the contexts that use it as a metaphor (the spies feeling tiny, humanity looking small from heaven) fit a smaller insect. In 2 Chronicles 7:13, however, it is clearly a crop-destroying swarm.

  Biologically, locusts are simply grasshoppers that switch into a gregarious, migratory phase. English speakers (especially in North America) often use the two words interchangeably; British usage tends to reserve “locust” for the large swarming kinds.

• sol‘am and ḥargol — the other two names listed with ’arbeh and ḥāgāb in Leviticus 11:22. They are usually translated “bald locust” and “cricket” (or “beetle” in the KJV).

Joel 1–2 uses four additional words (gazam, yeleq, hasil, plus ’arbeh) that many interpreters take as successive stages of a locust plague or as different types.

How translations handle Leviticus 11:22

The four permitted insects are rendered differently across versions:

• KJV: locust, bald locust, beetle, grasshopper
• Many modern versions (NIV, ESV, etc.): locust, katydid/bald locust, cricket, grasshopper

The underlying idea is the same: certain jumping Orthoptera with jointed hind legs were considered clean and edible.

In short, when English Bibles of the Hebrew Scriptures say “grasshopper,” they are usually pointing to ḥāgāb—a hopping insect of the locust/grasshopper family that Israelites were allowed to eat and that biblical writers used as an image of something small and insignificant. The more famous destructive swarms are normally called “locusts” and render ’arbeh.