There are two Hebrew words which are translated as "fly." One is zebub, so familiar in the compound word Baal-zebub—i.e. "Lord of Flies." This word only occurs in two passages, one being the well-known proverb, "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour" (Eccles. x. 1).
This passage requires a little explanation. By the word "apothecary" we must not understand a medical man, nor by the word "ointment" the mollifying substance used as an application for wounds. The ointment of Scripture signifies the various perfumed unguents used as scents and cosmetics for the living, as part of the preparation of the dead for the grave, and as an essential accessory to Jewish ritual.
These ointments were most carefully made, and the person who prepared and sold them was called the apothecary. If, therefore, the unguents were carelessly stored, and the Flies permitted to enter, the perfume would be destroyed by the odour of their dead bodies.
The second passage is Isa. vii. 18: "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt." No particular species of fly is here indicated; but it is evident that some peculiarly irritating and troublesome, not to say dangerous, insect is signified.
Many species of gadfly would produce that effect, and inflict direful torments on those whom they assail. Even in England the gadflies are more than troublesome to human beings. In the New Forest I have been fairly driven back by the attack of the gadflies, which wounded me through a thick woollen coat, while they attacked the uncovered portions of the skin so fiercely that, before reaching shelter, my neck was bathed in blood.
Another word is arôb, which is applied to the flies which were brought upon Egypt in the great plague. It is probable that some different species is here signified, but there is no certainty in the matter. Any species, however, would be a sufficient plague if they exceeded the usual number which infest Egypt, and which at first make the life of a foreigner a burden to him. They swarm in such myriads, that he eats flies, drinks flies, and breathes flies.
Not the least part of the nuisance is, that they cluster in the eyes of those who are affected with the prevalent ophthalmia, which is so fertile a cause of blindness, and so convey the infection with them. A stranger is always struck with the appearance of the children, who have quantities of these pests upon and about their eyes, and yet seem perfectly unaffected by a visitation which would wellnigh drive a European mad.
Signor Pierotti writes feelingly on the subject:—
"These insects sometimes cause no slight suffering in Palestine, as I can vouch from my own experience. However large or however small they may be, a rabid and restless foe, they attack alike, and make themselves insufferable in a thousand ways, in every season and place, in the house and in the field, by day and by night.
"Frequently in 1857 and 1860, while I was encamped near the tents of the Bedawîn, in the neighbourhood of the Jordan, and to the south of Hebron, flies were brought in such numbers by the east wind that all, beasts and men, were in danger of being choked by them, as they crept into our ears, noses, and mouths, and all over our bodies. My servant and I were the first to fly from the pest, as we were spotted all over like lepers with the eruption caused by their bites: the Bedawîn themselves were not slow to follow our example.