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Leviticus 11:20-21
Excerpted from: What Kind of Bugs Have You Eaten?So, all insects are forbidden except those with wings and have jointed hind legs used for jumping, such as locusts and grasshoppers. Therefore, the locust and grasshopper are the only ones biblically clean and allowable for food. Actually, in a general sense, locusts are a type of grasshopper, so they're of the same family. The locust, like all insects, have six feet, but the two anterior feet—front ones—go in a different direction from the four posterior legs of insects, so Leviticus 11:21 speaks of them as going on four legs. Therefore, it considers the two anterior legs as something like arms (according to Kirby and Spence in their Introduction to Entomology, page 24). I always wondered why insects had six legs—I mean, all of them had six—but He talked about four legs here. That's the reason why, apparently.
In Leviticus 11:21, the jointed legs above the feet are called the tibia, and this is the part of the legs from the knee to the ankle. It is called this because it is bent under when kneeling or lying down. This applies to the feet of the locust, which are designed for leaping or skipping. The tibia were placed in such a manner above the tarsi as to fit the creature for leaping.
Just to recap quickly, they must fly, they must leap, they must have jointed legs above their feet, and creep on all fours in order to be clean. The only insects that fit those qualifications are grasshoppers and locusts.
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