In some languages it may be more appropriate to begin this verse with something like “Therefore you may eat…” or “Here, then, are the ones you may eat:….” The repetition of the phrase according to its kind, as in verses 13-19, may be dropped or left implicit. Although the Hebrew lists four different kinds of insects here, Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have reduced this to three.

The problem is dealt with in New Jerusalem Bible by borrowing certain Hebrew terms: “the various kinds of solham locust, hargol locust and hagab locust.” But this is not a satisfactory solution in a common language translation. An attempt should be made to find well-known words that correspond more or less to the biblical ideas. If the correspondence is not exact, an explanation may be offered in a footnote. In languages where there are very few words for this type of insect, a more general statement like “the various kinds of crickets and grasshoppers” may be required. It may even be necessary in some languages to say simply “all kinds of grasshoppers,” but this is not advised unless it is impossible to do otherwise.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

This text contains four clean insects. The two Hebrew words sol‘am and chargol occur only here, so it is very difficult to be precise about their meaning. The suggestions, therefore, have to be very tentative.

From the general rule given in this verse about the characteristics of clean insects, we can deduce that all four of the insects have specialized legs for hopping. This would suggest that locusts (’arbeh), grasshoppers (chagav), and crickets (probably chargol) would be included in the list, as various species of these three insects are commonly eaten in the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. Since a fourth name occurs in the list, New International Version translates sol‘am as “katydid”, while New American Bible translates chargol as “katydids” and sol‘am as “grasshoppers”. The katydid is a nocturnal hopping insect similar to a grasshopper in many respects, but usually with green leaf-shaped wings. However, katydids are usually solitary creatures, and not very easy to collect, and thus they are not commonly a food source.

All that can be said with certainty about the list of clean insects is that it most probably contains locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets. It is probably safest to translate the list as “all kinds of locusts, all kinds of grasshoppers, and all kinds of crickets,” and add this footnote: “In Hebrew there are four insects in the list. Some scholars suggest that these are four different types of locust.”

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)