locust

Distinctions

the set as a whole

It seems, the column says, that these words are not simply synonyms but names of different types of grasshopper. We do not know for sure what each one is; they are probably different forms of grasshoppers, crickets, katydids (bush crickets) and other orthoptera. Counting the words the column gathers, there are nine: arbeh, gazam, yelek, chasil, tzfoni, sal'am, chargol, chagav and chanamal, with tzlatzel added at the end as another possible one.

arbeh (ארבה)

The eighth makkah (Shemos 10:14, "before it there was never an arbeh like it, and after it there will not be so"). Radak: named for its multitudes, from harbeh. Arbeh names one particular species and also serves as the umbrella for every kind. It heads the four permitted species of Vayikra 11:22 (arbeh, sal'am, chargol, chagav), and the Gemara (Chullin 65a) gives its Aramaic as govai, as does the Targum to Yoel.

gazam (גזם)

Radak: from gozez, because it cuts the grain. First in Yoel's sequence: the gazam eats, and what it leaves the arbeh eats (Yoel 1:4). Targum: zachala, a crawling thing (compare Devarim 32:24, where the word means a snake).

yelek (ילק)

Radak: from melakek, to lick, for its habit of licking and chewing at the grass. Third in Yoel's sequence. Nachum 3:15 describes the yelek as one that "spreads out and flies away," and on that Malbim builds a life cycle: born as a kind of worm, then a cocoon, then emerging winged. The columnist adds that after consulting Ohr Somayach's resident zoologist, Rabbi Richard Jacobs, he has been unable to confirm that such a grasshopper exists. Targum: parcha, a flying thing.

chasil (חסיל)

Radak: the one that finishes off (chasal) whatever produce remains, the word of chasal siddur Pesach and of a siyum. Last in Yoel's sequence. Targum: shmota.

chagav (חגב)

One of the four permitted species (Vayikra 11:22), and, per Meiri (Beis HaBechirah) and Rabbi Shmuel ben Meshullam of Gerona (Ohel Mo'ed), also the general term for all kosher grasshoppers; see Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Karnei Chagavim 2. The Gemara (Chullin 63b) says there are eight hundred kinds of chagav. Aramaic (Chullin 65a): sal'am is rishon, chargol is nipol, chagav is gadyan (see also Radak to Amos 7:1).

tzfoni (צפוני)

Yoel 2:20, God's own promise if the Jewish People repent their sins and pray: "I will distance the tzfoni from you." Rashi and Radak: another word for these pests, so called because they usually migrate from the north (tzafon) of Eretz Yisrael.

tzlatzel (צלצל)

Rashi (to Devarim 28:42 and Bava Kama 116b): another kind of grasshopper. Rabbeinu Bachya (to Devarim 28:42) and the commentary printed under Rashi's name to Divrei HaYamim I 13:8 tie the word to metziltayim, cymbals, for the din these insects make. Pirush HaRokeach connects grasshoppers to tzel, shade, since a swarm crossing the sky throws a shadow on the ground beneath. Against Rashi: Rav Saadia Gaon reads tzlatzel as butterflies, Ralbag as worms, and Ramban as the clamor of enemy armies, not an insect at all.

chanamal (חנמל)

Tehillim 78:47, in the retelling of the makkos. Rashi: grasshoppers. Other meforshim: a kind of hail.

How many were in Mitzrayim

Midrash HaGadol (to Shemos 10:14): seven of the nine kinds made up the makkah of arbeh, namely arbeh, sal'am, chargol, chagav, gazam, yelek and chasil. Rabbi Menachem Tzioni, a fourteenth-century German mekubal, adds chanamal for eight, each of the eight containing a hundred sub-species, eight hundred in all, matching the Gemara's eight hundred kinds of chagav. Midrash Sechel Tov has the same tradition with tzlatzel in place of chanamal.

Rendering guidance

• Yoel 1:4 is the test case. "What the gazam left the arbeh ate, and what the arbeh left the yelek ate, and what the yelek left the chasil ate." Either transliterate all four, or give four different English words (cutter locust, swarming locust, licking locust, finishing locust) with a note. Never write "locust" four times; the escalation is the nevuah.
• Trap: English "grasshopper" and "locust" between them absorb all nine or ten words. Reserve "locust" for a swarm that devours (arbeh in the makkah, Yoel's four) and "grasshopper" for the kashrus discussion of Vayikra 11:22, where the insect is being classed, not feared.
• Vayikra 11:22: the four names are species and should stay transliterated, with a gloss, because no one can pin them to modern species with confidence. Where a passage rules on them, say with Meiri that chagav doubles as the class name.
• Arbeh used as an umbrella (Midrash HaGadol on Shemos 10:14, where the arbeh of the plague contains seven kinds) needs "the locust plague" or "the locust host," not "the arbeh species," or the Midrash contradicts itself in English.
• Tzlatzel in Devarim 28:42: if the sefer is quoting Rashi, "locust"; if Ramban, "the clash of armies." The word cannot be rendered without deciding, so decide out loud in a note.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Army of Grasshoppers," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 20 January 2018 / 4 Shevat 5778: raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7592-army-of-grasshoppers.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 10:14; Vayikra 11:22; Devarim 28:42, 32:24; Tehillim 78:47 with Rashi; Yoel 1:4, 2:20 with Rashi and Radak; Nachum 3:15 with Malbim; Amos 7:1 with Radak; Divrei HaYamim I 13:8; Chullin 63b, 65a; Bava Kama 116b with Rashi; Midrash HaGadol to Shemos 10:14; Midrash Sechel Tov; Meiri, Beis HaBechirah; Rabbi Shmuel ben Meshullam of Gerona, Ohel Mo'ed; Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Karnei Chagavim 2; Rabbeinu Bachya to Devarim 28:42; Pirush HaRokeach; Rav Saadia Gaon, Ralbag and Ramban on tzlatzel; Targum to Yoel.