Kosher Status of Locusts and Other Insects in Leviticus
Question: Check locusts and other bugs. They're kosher, I believe. If we want to eat locusts and bugs for supper, would they be kosher?
Leviticus 11 addresses clean and unclean animals under the Mosaic law. Regarding insects, it states:
"Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you.’’ (Leviticus 11:22–23)
Within Israel’s dietary regulations:
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- Certain kinds of locusts, bald locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers are explicitly permitted.
- Other “flying creeping things” are forbidden.
All true insects have six legs, and the legislative description focuses on those able to leap with legs above their feet. The permitted group corresponds to specific families of edible orthopterans (locusts/grasshoppers) traditionally recognized in Jewish practice.
Thus, under the Mosaic dietary law:
- Locusts and related permitted species were indeed kosher.
- Other flying creeping things, not matching the described permitted kinds, were not.
For those not under the Mosaic code (believers in this dispensation), these dietary distinctions are not binding, but if one were observing Levitical food laws, locusts and certain similar insects fall into the “clean” category, whereas many other insects do not.
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