HORNET, WASP (hor'net, wOsp), (Heb.
Isir-aw', stinging, Exod. xxiii:28; Deut. vii:2o, Sept. ras crcbnxias, hornets; Vulg. crabrones; Josh. xxiv:I2, rijv eopdav, hornet, erabronem ; Wisd. Sol. xii:8, croijKas, vesfias, 'wasps').
It being upon the whole most probable that `the hornet' is the true rendering in these passages of Scripture, the only further question which re mains is, whether the word is to be taken as liter ally meaning this well-known and terrific insect, or whether it is to be understood in a metaphor ical ar,d figurative sense for diseases, supernat ural terror, etc., by which Jehovah 'drove out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites from before Is rael.' Among the moderns, Michaelis has de fended the figurative sense. In addition to other reasons for it, he doubts whether the expulsion of the Canaanites cou/d be effected by swarms of crone% and derives the Hebrew from a root sig nifying 'scourges,"plagues; seutica, plagcr, etc. (Suppl. ad Lexic. Hebr. vi, 2154). In favor of the possibility of such an event it is observed, that iElian relates that the Phaselitx were actu ally driven from their locality by such means (Hist. Anim. ix :28), and Bochart has shown that
these Phaselitm were a Phanician people (ut supra, p. 412). Even Rosenmiiller himself adopts the figurative sense in his Scholia on Exod. xxiii : 28 ; but on Josh. xxiv :12 he retracts that opinion, and amply refutes it. His reasonings and refu tations have been adopted by numerous writers (among others see Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture, i. 3,03, etc.; Edin. 1819).
Figurative. However, the word "hornet," in Exod. xxiii :28, is parallel with "fear" in verse 27, and similar expressions, such as "to chase as the bees do," are undoubtedly used metaphor ically (Deut. i:44; Ps. cxviii:12). It is therefore reasonable to regard this word as expressing by a vivid image the fear which Jehovah would in spire in the enemy of Israel, as declared in Deut. :25; Josh. ii