Are all winged insects unclean, or may some be eaten?

Leviticus gives the law in full and Deuteronomy in brief. Leviticus 11:20-23 first states the general rule, that winged ‘swarming things’ (Hebrew sherets ha‘oph) that go on four legs are an abomination. It then gives the exception: those “which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth”, four kinds of locust and grasshopper. (The KJV’s ‘beetle’ is a cricket or a similar leaping insect in modern versions.) Deuteronomy 14 repeats the food laws for the people more briefly. It gives the rule, “every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you”, and at once adds, “But of all clean fowls ye may eat” (14:19-20).

The word translated ‘fowls’ there is ‘oph, which means any flying creature, birds and winged insects alike. It is the same word Leviticus uses in the phrase for winged insects. So Deuteronomy’s exception covers every flying creature that the law had declared clean, the leaping locusts among them. Gill notes that the medieval Jewish scholar Ibn Ezra and the Targum of Jonathan both read verse 20 in this way. Deuteronomy assumes the fuller law already given and does not repeat its list. Locusts went on being eaten by faithful Israelites: John the Baptist lived on “locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4).

Which insects the four Hebrew names in Leviticus 11:22 denote is not certain. Keil and Delitzsch note that they are kinds of locust but cannot be identified exactly.