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Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged

Volume II · O

Ophiomachus

OPHIOMACHUS: This Word, according to its Greek Etymology, signifies one that fights against Serpents. Moses puts the Ophiomachus in the Number of Locusts which may be eaten1. The Hebrew Word is Chargol, which the Seventy and the Vulgate translate Ophiomachus2. Suidas and Hesychius mention a kind of Locust of this Name, which has no Wings. Pliny3 and Aristotle4 speak of several Locusts which are very large, and which are Enemies to Serpents.

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Footnotes

  1. Levit. xi. 22. חרגולὈφιομάχος. ↩

  2. Translators’ note. The English Translation calls it the Beetle. ↩

  3. Plin. l. xi. c. 29. ↩

  4. Aristot. l. ix. c. 6. Hist. Nat. ↩

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Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Ophiomachus,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/o/ophiomachus/.

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