הצרעה, Exod. xxiii, 28; Deut. vii, 20; Joshua xxiv, 12. The
hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species _crabo_, of the genus
_vespa_ or wasp. It is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly
strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, and sometimes
more. In each of the instances where this creature is mentioned in
Scripture, it is as sent among the enemies of the Israelites, to drive
them out of the land. Some explain the word metaphorically, as “I will
send my terror as the hornet,” &c. But Bochart contends that it is to be
taken in its proper literal meaning, and has accumulated examples of
several other people having been chased from their habitations by
insects of different kinds. Ælian records that the Phaselites, who dwelt
about the mountains of Solyma, were driven out of their country by
wasps. As these people were Phenicians or Canaanites, it is probable
that the event to which he refers is the same as took place in the days
of Joshua. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these fierce
and severely stinging insects might be, any person may conjecture. No
armour, no weapons could avail against them. A few thousands of them
would be sufficient to overthrow the best disciplined army and put it
into confusion and rout. From Joshua xxiv, 12, we find that two kings of
the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so
that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the
conquest. One of these, according to the Jewish commentaries of R.
Nachman, was the nation of the Girgashites, who retired into Africa,
fearing the power of God. And Procopius, in his history of the Vandals,
mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania Tingitana, stating, that
the inhabitants had fled thither from the face of Joshua, the son of
Nun. This account accords with Scripture, in which, though the
Girgashites are included in the general list of the seven devoted
nations either to be driven out or destroyed by the Israelites, Gen. xv,
20, 21; Deut. vii, 1; Josh. iii, 10; xxiv, 11; yet they are omitted in
the list of those to be utterly destroyed, Deut. xx, 17; and among whom,
in neglect of the divine decree, the Israelites lived and intermarried,
Judges iii, 1–6. That the name of the Girgashites, however, was not
extirpated, we may collect from the Gergesenes, in our Saviour’s time,
inhabiting the same country, Matt. viii, 28. Other tribes of the
Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites, were also expelled by the hornet
gradually; not in one year, lest the land should become desolate, and
the wild beasts multiply to the prejudice of the Israelites, Exod.
xxiii, 28–30.
The “arms of Jove,” to which Virgil refers, (_Æneid_ viii, 355–358,) in
describing the flight of Saturn from the east, were the hornets sent by
the God of Israel, Iahoh, or by contraction Io, to which also his
description of the Asilus exactly corresponds:--
_Plurimus--volitans, (cui nomen Asilo
Romanum est_; οἶστρον, _Graii vertere vocantes,)
Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita sylvis
Diffugiunt armenta_.
Georg. iii, 145.
“About the Alburnian groves, with holly green,
Of winged insects mighty swarms are seen;
This flying plague, to mark its quality,
ŒSTROS the Grecians call; ASYLUS, we:
A fierce loud buzzing breeze; their stings draw blood,
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood.
Seized with unusual pains, they loudly cry.”
DRYDEN.
Dr. Hales is of opinion, that the Latin _asilus_ and Greek οιστρον, were
probably only different pronunciations of the same oriental term, הצרעה,
_hatsiraah_, as this fly is called by Moses and Joshua. The vindictive
power that presided over this dreadful scourge was worshipped at Ekron,
in Palestine, through fear, the reigning motive of Pagan superstition,
under the title of _Baal-zebub_, “master or lord of the hornet,” whence
_Beelzebub_, in the New Testament, “the prince of demons,” Matt. xii,
24. Isaiah, denouncing a wo against Abyssinia, describes it as “the land
of the winged cymbal,” (_tsaltsal canaphim_,) Isaiah xviii, 1; by the
same analogy that _tsaltsal_ signifies “a locust,” Deut. xxviii, 42; _a
streperâ voce sic dictam_. [So called from its streperous sound.] Bruce,
in his Travels in Abyssinia, has given an accurate description of this
tremendous fly, which in Arabic is called _zimb_, and by the Abyssinians
_tsaltsal-ya_, “the cymbal of the Lord,” from its sonorous buzzing. And
in his Appendix he has given a drawing of it, magnified, for
distinctness’ sake, something above twice the natural size: after which
he observes, “He has no sting, though he seems to me to be rather of the
bee kind; but his motion is more rapid and sudden than that of the bee,
(_volitans_,) and resembles that of the gad-fly in England. There is
something particular in the sound or buzzing of this insect; it is a
jarring noise, together with a humming, (_acerba sonans_,) which induces
me to believe it proceeds, in part at least, from a vibration made with
the three hairs at his snout.” Bruce does not cite or refer to Virgil’s
description, though his account furnishes the most critical and exact
explanation of it. Such undesigned coincidences are most satisfactory
and convincing; they show that the poet and the naturalist both copied
from nature. And the terror impressed by this insect on all the cattle,
_quo tota exterrita sylvis diffugiunt_, [affrighted at which the entire
herds flee to the thickets,] according to Virgil, is thus illustrated by
Bruce: “As soon as this plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, all
the cattle forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain till they
die, worn out with fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy remains but to
leave the black earth, where they breed, and hasten down to the sands of
Atbara; and there they remain while the periodical rains last, this
cruel enemy (_asper_) never daring to pursue them farther. The camel,
emphatically called by the Arabs the ship of the desert, though his size
is immense as is his strength, and his body covered with a thick skin,
defended with strong hair, still is not able to sustain the violent
punctures the fly makes with his pointed proboscis. He must lose no time
in removing to the sands of Atbara; for when once attacked by this fly,
his body, head, and legs, break out into large bosses, which swell,
break, and putrefy, to the certain destruction of the creature. I have
found some of these tubercles upon almost every elephant and rhinoceros
that I have seen, and attribute them to this cause. All the inhabitants
of the sea coast are obliged to put themselves in motion, and remove to
the next sand, in the beginning of the rainy season, to prevent all
their stock of cattle from being destroyed. Nor is there any
alternative, or means of avoiding this, though a hostile band was in the
way, capable of spoiling them of half their substance, as was actually
the case when we were at Sennaar. Of such consequence is the weakest
instrument in the hand of Providence.” See FLIES and BEELZEBUB.
hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species _crabo_, of the genus
_vespa_ or wasp. It is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly
strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, and sometimes
more. In each of the instances where this creature is mentioned in
Scripture, it is as sent among the enemies of the Israelites, to drive
them out of the land. Some explain the word metaphorically, as “I will
send my terror as the hornet,” &c. But Bochart contends that it is to be
taken in its proper literal meaning, and has accumulated examples of
several other people having been chased from their habitations by
insects of different kinds. Ælian records that the Phaselites, who dwelt
about the mountains of Solyma, were driven out of their country by
wasps. As these people were Phenicians or Canaanites, it is probable
that the event to which he refers is the same as took place in the days
of Joshua. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these fierce
and severely stinging insects might be, any person may conjecture. No
armour, no weapons could avail against them. A few thousands of them
would be sufficient to overthrow the best disciplined army and put it
into confusion and rout. From Joshua xxiv, 12, we find that two kings of
the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so
that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the
conquest. One of these, according to the Jewish commentaries of R.
Nachman, was the nation of the Girgashites, who retired into Africa,
fearing the power of God. And Procopius, in his history of the Vandals,
mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania Tingitana, stating, that
the inhabitants had fled thither from the face of Joshua, the son of
Nun. This account accords with Scripture, in which, though the
Girgashites are included in the general list of the seven devoted
nations either to be driven out or destroyed by the Israelites, Gen. xv,
20, 21; Deut. vii, 1; Josh. iii, 10; xxiv, 11; yet they are omitted in
the list of those to be utterly destroyed, Deut. xx, 17; and among whom,
in neglect of the divine decree, the Israelites lived and intermarried,
Judges iii, 1–6. That the name of the Girgashites, however, was not
extirpated, we may collect from the Gergesenes, in our Saviour’s time,
inhabiting the same country, Matt. viii, 28. Other tribes of the
Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites, were also expelled by the hornet
gradually; not in one year, lest the land should become desolate, and
the wild beasts multiply to the prejudice of the Israelites, Exod.
xxiii, 28–30.
The “arms of Jove,” to which Virgil refers, (_Æneid_ viii, 355–358,) in
describing the flight of Saturn from the east, were the hornets sent by
the God of Israel, Iahoh, or by contraction Io, to which also his
description of the Asilus exactly corresponds:--
_Plurimus--volitans, (cui nomen Asilo
Romanum est_; οἶστρον, _Graii vertere vocantes,)
Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita sylvis
Diffugiunt armenta_.
Georg. iii, 145.
“About the Alburnian groves, with holly green,
Of winged insects mighty swarms are seen;
This flying plague, to mark its quality,
ŒSTROS the Grecians call; ASYLUS, we:
A fierce loud buzzing breeze; their stings draw blood,
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood.
Seized with unusual pains, they loudly cry.”
DRYDEN.
Dr. Hales is of opinion, that the Latin _asilus_ and Greek οιστρον, were
probably only different pronunciations of the same oriental term, הצרעה,
_hatsiraah_, as this fly is called by Moses and Joshua. The vindictive
power that presided over this dreadful scourge was worshipped at Ekron,
in Palestine, through fear, the reigning motive of Pagan superstition,
under the title of _Baal-zebub_, “master or lord of the hornet,” whence
_Beelzebub_, in the New Testament, “the prince of demons,” Matt. xii,
24. Isaiah, denouncing a wo against Abyssinia, describes it as “the land
of the winged cymbal,” (_tsaltsal canaphim_,) Isaiah xviii, 1; by the
same analogy that _tsaltsal_ signifies “a locust,” Deut. xxviii, 42; _a
streperâ voce sic dictam_. [So called from its streperous sound.] Bruce,
in his Travels in Abyssinia, has given an accurate description of this
tremendous fly, which in Arabic is called _zimb_, and by the Abyssinians
_tsaltsal-ya_, “the cymbal of the Lord,” from its sonorous buzzing. And
in his Appendix he has given a drawing of it, magnified, for
distinctness’ sake, something above twice the natural size: after which
he observes, “He has no sting, though he seems to me to be rather of the
bee kind; but his motion is more rapid and sudden than that of the bee,
(_volitans_,) and resembles that of the gad-fly in England. There is
something particular in the sound or buzzing of this insect; it is a
jarring noise, together with a humming, (_acerba sonans_,) which induces
me to believe it proceeds, in part at least, from a vibration made with
the three hairs at his snout.” Bruce does not cite or refer to Virgil’s
description, though his account furnishes the most critical and exact
explanation of it. Such undesigned coincidences are most satisfactory
and convincing; they show that the poet and the naturalist both copied
from nature. And the terror impressed by this insect on all the cattle,
_quo tota exterrita sylvis diffugiunt_, [affrighted at which the entire
herds flee to the thickets,] according to Virgil, is thus illustrated by
Bruce: “As soon as this plague appears, and their buzzing is heard, all
the cattle forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain till they
die, worn out with fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy remains but to
leave the black earth, where they breed, and hasten down to the sands of
Atbara; and there they remain while the periodical rains last, this
cruel enemy (_asper_) never daring to pursue them farther. The camel,
emphatically called by the Arabs the ship of the desert, though his size
is immense as is his strength, and his body covered with a thick skin,
defended with strong hair, still is not able to sustain the violent
punctures the fly makes with his pointed proboscis. He must lose no time
in removing to the sands of Atbara; for when once attacked by this fly,
his body, head, and legs, break out into large bosses, which swell,
break, and putrefy, to the certain destruction of the creature. I have
found some of these tubercles upon almost every elephant and rhinoceros
that I have seen, and attribute them to this cause. All the inhabitants
of the sea coast are obliged to put themselves in motion, and remove to
the next sand, in the beginning of the rainy season, to prevent all
their stock of cattle from being destroyed. Nor is there any
alternative, or means of avoiding this, though a hostile band was in the
way, capable of spoiling them of half their substance, as was actually
the case when we were at Sennaar. Of such consequence is the weakest
instrument in the hand of Providence.” See FLIES and BEELZEBUB.