LIBYANS (lib'y-anz), (Heb. Olt?, loo-beem').
The word thus rendered in Dan. xi:43 should be Lublin; in Jer. xlvi :9 it is Libyans.
LICE (lic), (Heb. kin-eene), occurs in Exod. viii :t6, 17, 18; Ps. cv:3t ; Vulg. muscas.
The name of the creature employed in the third plague upon Egypt, miraculously produced from the dust of the land. Its exact nature has been much disputed. Those who reason from the root of the word in the Hebrew text, and assume it to be derived from the Hebrew word to fix, settle, or establish, infer lice to be meant, from their fixing themselves on mankind, animals, etc. But since it is spoken of as an Egyptian insect, the name for it may be purely Egyptian, and may have no connection with any Hebrew root (Michaelis, Suppl. ad Lex. n. 1174)• It is probable, however, that not lice but some species of gnats is the proper rendering. It is not a valid objection, that if this plague were gnats, etc.,the plague of flies would be anticipated, since the latter most likely consisted of one par ticular species having a different destination (see FLY) ; whereas this may have consisted of not only mosquitoes or gnats, but of some other species which also attack domestic cattle, as the astrus, or tabanus, or cimb (Bruce's Travels, ii :315, 8vo) ; on which supposition these two plagues would be sufficiently distinct.
But since mosquitoes, gnats, etc., have ever been one of the evils of Egypt, there must have been some peculiarity attending them on this occasion, which proved the plague to be 'the finger of God.' From the next chapter (Ex. ix :3t)
it appears that the flax and the barley were smit ten by the hail; that the former was beginning to grow, and that the latter was in the ear—which, according to Shaw, takes place in Egypt in March.
Hence the kineem would be sent about February, e. before the increase of the Nile, which takes place at the end of May, or beginning of June. Since, then, the innumerable swarms of mos quitoes, gnats, etc., which every. year affect the Egyptians, come, according to Hasselquist, at the increase of the Nile, the appearance of them in February would be as much a variation of the course of nature as the appearance of thc a'strus in January would be in England. They were also probably numerous and fierce beyond example on this occasion ; and as the Egyptians would be utterly unprepared for them (for it seems that this plague was not announced), the effects would be signally distressing.
For a description of the evils inflict'ed by these insects upon man, see Kirby and Spence, Intro duction to Entomology, Lond. 1828, i :115, etc.; and for the annoyance they cause in Egypt, Mail let, Descrifition de l'Egyfile par l'Abbe Mascrier, Paris, 1755, xc:37; Forskal, DescriPt. A nimal. p. 85.