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Bible Dictionaries
Flies
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or The kinds of flies are exceedingly numerous; some with two, and some with four, wings. They abound in warm and moist regions, as in Egypt, Chaldea, Palestine, and in the middle regions of Africa; and during the rainy seasons are very troublesome. In the Hebrew Scriptures, or in the ancient versions, are seven kinds of insects, which Bochart classes among muscae, or flies. These are,
1. ערב , Exodus 8:20; Psalms 78:45; Psalms 105:31 , which those interpreters who, by residing on the spot, have had the best means of identifying, have rendered the dog-fly, κυνομυια , and it is supposed to be the same which in Abyssinia is called the zimb.
2. זבוב , 2 Kings 1:2-3; 2 Kings 1:6; 2 Kings 1:16; Ecclesiastes 10:1; Isaiah
Ecclesiastes 7:18 . Whether this denotes absolutely a distinct species of fly, or swarms of all sorts, may be difficult to determine.
3. ידברה Judges 14:18; Psalms 118:12 , rendered bee.
4. צרעה , σφηξ , Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12;
Deuteronomy 7:20 , hornet.
5. סרבים , οιστρος , Ezekiel 2:6; Hosea 4:16 .
6. בק , κωνωψ , Matthew 23:24 , the gnat.
7. כנים , σκνιφες , Exodus 8:16; Psalms 105:31 , lice.
2. M. Sonnini, speaking of Egypt, says, "Of insects there the most troublesome are the flies. Both man and beast are cruelly tormented with them. No idea can be formed of their obstinate rapacity when they wish to fix upon some part of the body. It is in vain to drive them away; they return again in the self-same moment; and their perseverance wearies out the most patient spirit. They like to fasten themselves in preference on the corners of the eye, and on the edge of the eyelid; tender parts, toward which a gentle moisture attracts them." The Egyptians paid a superstitious worship to several sorts of flies and insects. If, then, such was the superstitious homage of this people, nothing could be more determinate than the judgment brought upon them by Moses. They were punished by the very things they revered; and though they boasted of spells and charms, yet they could not ward off the evil.
3. "The word zimb," says Brace, "is Arabic, and signifies the fly in general. The Chaldee paraphrase is content with calling it simply zebub, which has the same general signification. The Ethiopic version calls it tsaltsalya, which is the true name of this particular fly in Geez. It is in size very little larger than a bee, of a thicker proportion; and its wings, which are broader, are placed separate like those of a fly. Its head is large; the upper jaw or lip is sharp, and has at the end of it a strong pointed hair, of about a quarter of an inch in length; the lower jaw has two of these hairs: and this pencil of hairs, joined together, makes a resistance to the finger, nearly equal to a strong bristle of a hog. Its legs are serrated on the inside, and the whole covered with brown hair, or down. It has no sting, though it appears to be of the bee kind. As soon as this winged assassin appears, and its buzzing is heard, the cattle forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain till they die, worn out with affright, fatigue, and pain. The inhabitants of Melinda down to Cape Gardefan, to Saba, and the south coast of the Red Sea, are obliged to put themselves in motion, and remove to the next sand in the beginning of the rainy season. This is not a partial emigration; the inhabitants of all the countries, from the mountains of Abyssinia northward, to the confluence of the Nile and Astaboras, are, once in a year, obliged to change their abode, and seek protection in the sands of Beja, till the danger of the insect is over. The elephant and the rhinoceros, which by reason of their enormous bulk, and the vast quantity of food and water they daily need, cannot shift to desert and dry places, are obliged, in order to resist the zimb, to roll themselves in mud and mire, which, when dry, coats them over like armour. It was no trifling judgment, then, with which the prophet threatened the refractory Israelites: "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria," Isaiah 7:18 . If the prediction be understood in the literal sense, it represents the oestra or cincinellae, as the armies of Jehovah, summoned by him to battle against his offending people; or, if it be taken metaphorically, which is perhaps the proper way of expounding it, the prophet compares the numerous and destructive armies of Babylon to the countless swarms of these flies, whose distant hum is said to strike the quadrupeds with consternation, and whose bite inflicts, on man and beast, a torment almost insupportable. How intolerable a plague of flies can prove, is evident from the fact, that whole districts have been laid waste by them. Such was the fate of Myuns in Ionia, and of Alarnae. The inhabitants were forced to quit these cities, not being able to stand against the flies and gnats with which they were pestered. Trajan was obliged to raise the siege of a city in Arabia, before which he had sat down, being driven away by the swarms of these insects. Hence different people had deities whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these may be reckoned Baalzebub, the fly-god of Ekron: Hercules muscarum abactor, "Hercules, the expeller of flies;" and hence Jupiter had the titles of απομυιος , μυιαγρος , μυιοχορος , because he was supposed to expel flies, and especially to clear his temples of these insects.
4. Solomon observes, "Dead flies cause the apothecary's ointment to stink," Ecclesiastes 10:1 . "A fact well known," says Scheuchzer; "wherefore apothecaries take care to prevent flies from coming to their syrups and other fermentable preparations. For in all insects there is an acrid volatile salt, which, mixed with sweet or even alkaline substances, excites them to a brisk intestine motion, disposes them to fermentation, and to putrescence itself; by which the more volatile principles fly off, leaving the grosser behind: at the same time, the taste and odour are changed, the agreeable to fetid, the sweet to insipid." This verse is an illustration, by a very appropriate similitude, of the concluding assertion in the preceding chapter, that "one sinner destroyeth much good," as one dead fly spoils a whole vessel of precious ointment, which, in eastern countries, was considered as very valuable, 2 Kings 20:13 . The application of this proverbial expression to a person's good name, which is elsewhere compared to sweet ointment, Ecclesiastes 7:1; Song of Solomon 1:3 , is remarkably significant. As a fly, though a diminutive creature, can taint and corrupt much precious perfume; so a small mixture of folly and indiscretion will tarnish the reputation of one who, in other respects, is very wise and honourable; and so much the more, because of the malignity and ingratitude of mankind, who are disposed rather to censure one error, than to commend many excellencies, and from whose minds one small miscarriage is sufficient to blot out the memory of all other deserts. It concerns us, therefore, to conduct ourselves unblamably, that we may not by the least oversight or folly blemish our profession, or cause it to be offensive to others.
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Flies'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/f/flies.html. 1831-2.
