שמות 23:28

Hebrew Modern Translation

ושלחתי את הצרעה לפניך וגרשה את החוי את הכנעני ואת החתי מלפניך׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
ושלחתי את הצרעה לפניך וגרשה את החוי את הכנעני ואת החתי מלפניך

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
וְשָׁלַחְתִּ֥י אֶת־הַצִּרְעָ֖ה לְפָנֶ֑יךָ וְגֵרְשָׁ֗ה אֶת־הַחִוִּ֧י אֶת־הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֛י וְאֶת־הַחִתִּ֖י מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
וְשָׁלַחְתִּי אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְגֵרְשָׁה אֶת־הַחִוִּי אֶת־הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי וְאֶת־הַחִתִּי מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ ׃

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hornets: Tzirâh, The hornet, may be so called from the Arabic zaraâ, to lay prostrate, strike down, because of the destruction occasioned by the violence of its sting. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species Crabro, of the genus Vespa or Wasp. It is a most voracious insect, and exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length. Deuteronomy 7:20, Joshua 24:11

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 4:38 - drive Deuteronomy 6:19 - General Deuteronomy 7:1 - the Hittites Deuteronomy 31:4 - General Joshua 5:1 - Canaanites Joshua 12:8 - the Hittites Joshua 24:12 - I sent Judges 1:4 - Lord 1 Kings 9:20 - Amorites 1 Chronicles 1:13 - Heth Psalms 44:2 - how thou didst afflict Psalms 80:9 - preparedst

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will send hornets before thee,.... Which may be interpreted either figuratively, and so may signify the same as fear before which should fall on the Canaanites upon hearing the Israelites were coming; the stings of their consciences for their sins, terrors of mind, dreading the wrath of the God of Israel, of whom they had heard, and terrible apprehensions of ruin and destruction from the Israelites: Aben Ezra interprets it of some disease of the body, which weakens it, as the leprosy, from the signification of the word, which has some affinity with that used for the leprosy; and so the Arabic version understands it of a disease: or rather, the words are to be taken literally, for hornets, which are a sort of wasps, whose stings are very penetrating and venomous; nor is it any strange or unheard of thing for people to be drove out of their countries by small animals, as mice, flies, bees, c. and particularly Aelianus q relates, that the Phaselites were drove out of their country by wasps: and Bochart r has shown that those people were of a Phoenician original, and inhabited the mountains of Solymi and that this happened to them about the times of Joshua, and so may probably be the very Canaanites here mentioned, as follow: the wasps, in Aristophanes's comedy which bears that name, are introduced speaking of themselves, and say, no creature when provoked is more angry and troublesome than we are s:

which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee; which three are mentioned instead of the rest, or because they were more especially infested and distressed with the hornets, and drove out of their land by means of them.

q Hist. Animal. l. 11. c. 28. r Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 13. col. 541. s Aristoph. Vespae, p. 510.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hornets - Compare the marginal references. The word is used figuratively for a cause of terror and discouragement. Bees are spoken of in the like sense, Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalms 118:12.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 23:28. I will send hornets before thee — הצרעה hatstsirah. The root is not found in Hebrew, but it may be the same with the Arabic [Arabic] saraa, to lay prostrate, to strike down; the hornet, probably so called from the destruction occasioned by the violence of its sting. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species crabro, of the genus vespa or wasp; it is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, though I have seen some an inch and a half long, and so strong that, having caught one in a small pair of forceps, it repeatedly escaped by using violent contortions, so that at last I was obliged to abandon all hopes of securing it alive, which I wished to have done. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these might be, any person may conjecture; even the bees of one hive would be sufficient to sting a thousand men to madness, but how much worse must wasps and hornets be! No armour, no weapons, could avail against these. A few thousands of them would be quite sufficient to throw the best disciplined army into confusion and rout. From Joshua 24:12, we find that two kings of the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the conquest.