Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FLY

Any of various winged insects of the order Diptera. Heb. zeḇûḇ (Isa. 7:18; NJB “mosquito”), generally interpreted as the common housefly (Musca domestica), may actually refer to the larger and more annoying horsefly (Tabunus arenivagus).

Symbolically, the fly’s filthy habits are suggested in Eccl. 10:1, which observes that even a single fly can foul a perfumer’s ointment. In many parts of the world, infectious matter transported on the leg hairs of the fly still cause decay and spread disease.

Heb. ʿārôḇ, a collective noun meaning “swarm,” denotes the insects visited upon the Egyptians in the fourth plague as described in Exod. 8:20-32(16-26; JB “gadflies,” NJB “horseflies,” NJPSV “insects”; cf. Ps. 78:45; 105:31). This may have been the Tabanid fly (Stomoxys calcitrans), whose larvae develop in cow manure and which, when mature, lives off blood by biting the arms and legs of people and animals. In rabbinical literature the word is understood to mean a mixture of wild beasts.

See Baal-zebub.

Jesper Svartvik

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

FLY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)