Grasshopper

Grasshoppers and locusts are rendered by several Hebrew words in the Old Testament. As an image of smallness and insignificance, the ten faithless spies reported that Israel seemed like grasshoppers in comparison to the giant Canaanites (Num. 13:33). Isaiah uses the same image: the nations are "as grasshoppers" before God (Isa. 40:22). Certain species of locust were permitted as food in the Levitical code (Lev. 11:22), and John the Baptist ate locusts in the wilderness (Matt. 3:4). The locust invasion of Joel 1–2 is a central image of devastation and divine judgment. Qoheleth's lament that "the grasshopper shall be a burden" (Eccl. 12:5) is a metaphor for the frailty of old age.