Three examples occur in the Psalms: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels" (Psa. xxii. 14).
The word occurs again in Psa. lxviii. 2: "As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." It occurs for the third time in Psa. xcvii. 5: "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth."
The Prophet Micah uses a similar image: "Behold the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
"And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place." (i. 3, 4.)
The Bee represented on page [606] is the common Bee of Palestine, Apis fasciata. The lowest figure in the corner, with a long body and shut wings, is the queen. The central figure represents the drone, conspicuous by means of his large eyes, that almost join each other at the top of the head, and for his thicker and stouter body, while the third figure represents the worker Bee. Near them is shown the entrance to one of the natural hives which are so plentiful in the Holy Land, and are made in the "clefts of the rocks." A number of Bees are shown issuing from the hole.
THE HORNET.
The Tzirah or Hornet of Scripture—Travellers driven away by Hornets—The Hornet used as metaphor—Oriental symbolism—The Talmudical writers—Sting of the Hornet.
Still keeping to the hymenopterous insects, we come to the Hornet. There are three passages in which occurs the word tzirah, which has been translated as Hornet. In every case when the word is mentioned the insect is employed in a metaphorical sense. See, for example, Exod. xxiii. 27, 28: "I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come; and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.
"And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee."