A similar use of the word is made in Deut. vii. 20: "Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed."
The fulfilment of this promise is recorded in Josh. xxiv. 11, 12: "And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
"And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow."
It is most probable that in these passages the word is used rather as a metaphor than as the statement of a fact, and that under the symbol of the Hornet was signified some means whereby the people should be driven out of the land as men are driven when chased by angry Hornets. The reader may remember that the word "bee" is more than once used in a similar manner. This view of the case is corroborated by such passages as Deut. ii. 25: "This day will I begin to put the dread of thee, and the fear of thee, upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee." Also Josh. ii. 9-11: "I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
THE HORNET.
"I will send hornets before thee."—Exod. xxiii. 28.
"For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
"And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you."
The Hornet affords a most appropriate image for such a promise as was made to the Israelites, and was one which they must have thoroughly comprehended. The Hornets of Palestine and the neighbouring countries are far more common than our own Hornets in England, and they evidently infested some parts to such an extent that they gave their name to those spots. Thus the word Zoreah, which is mentioned in Josh. xv. 33, signifies the "place of Hornets."