צִרְעָה

From the study of Joshua 24:12

Range of meaning

Probably a stinging insect: a hornet or large wasp, used as one word for the whole kind. It appears only three times in the Bible, always in the same phrase about God sending it ahead of Israel (Exod 23:28; Deut 7:20; Josh 24:12). Because it is so rare, its exact meaning has to be worked out from those three passages and from the ancient translations.

Against the English

Most English versions keep "the hornet" (KJV, ESV, NASB, BSB, WEB, YLT). The NLT turns it into "terror", and its footnote gives the Hebrew "hornet". That is an interpretation, not a translation of the word.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) has sphēkia, "wasps" or "wasp swarm", and the Latin Vulgate has crabro, "hornet", so both ancient translators took it as an insect. Wisdom of Solomon 12:8 retells the conquest and takes it literally: God "sent wasps as forerunners of your army". Rabbinic tradition (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 36a) also took it as a real insect and added fantastic details. In Exod 23:27–28 the hornet comes straight after "I will send my terror ahead of you", which is why many readers see it as a picture of panic. Isaiah 7:18 uses a similar image, with God "whistling" for the fly and the bee, meaning foreign armies.

From the study of Exodus 23:28

Range of meaning

A stinging insect of the wasp/hornet family. It appears only three times in the Hebrew Bible, always in this same promise: Exod 23:28; Deut 7:20; Josh 24:12. It is always singular with the article ('the hornet') and works as a collective, meaning a swarm. The place name Zorah (Tsor'ah, Samson's town, Judg 13:2) is probably from the same root, perhaps 'hornet-place'.

Against the English

KJV, ESV and NASB say 'hornets', which correctly makes the collective plural. BSB, WEB and NIV keep 'the hornet', which preserves the Hebrew form but can sound like a single insect. NLT turns it into the abstract 'terror', which reads the image as a metaphor and loses the picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint uses sphēkia, 'wasps/hornets', and the Latin Vulgate uses crabrones, 'hornets'. So the ancient translators understood an insect. Wisdom of Solomon 12:8–9 (1st c. BC) retells the conquest as God sending 'wasps as forerunners of your army' so that the Canaanites would be destroyed 'little by little'. That shows at least some Second Temple Jews read it as literal insects. The Hebrew Bible also uses insect swarms as pictures of armies and pursuit: the Amorites 'chased you as bees do' (Deut 1:44), 'the bee in the land of Assyria' stands for Assyria's army (Isa 7:18), and 'they surrounded me like bees' (Ps 118:12). Ludwig Köhler proposed a different meaning, 'discouragement/despondency', based on a comparison with Arabic. HALOT records this proposal, but most scholars have not adopted it.