Fly

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FLY.—1. zebûb, Ecc_10:1, Isa_7:18 : also Baal-zebub [wh. see]. 2. ‘arôb, Exo_8:21 etc., the insects of one of the plagues of Egypt, thought by some to have been cockroaches. Flies of many kinds, mosquitoes, ‘sand-files,’ etc., swarm in Palestine and Egypt. In summer any sweet preparation left uncovered is at once defiled by flies falling into it (Ecc_10:1). Flies carry ophthalmia and infect food with the micro-organisms of other diseases, e.g. cholera, enteric fever, etc. They frequently deposit their eggs in uncleanly wounds and discharging ears, and these eggs develop into maggots. Special flies, in Africa at any rate, carry the trypanosoma, which produce fatal disease in cattle and ‘sleeping sickness’ in man. Mosquitoes, which may have been included in the ‘arôb (the ‘swarms of flies’) in Egypt, are now known to be the carriers of the poison of malaria, the greatest scourge of parts of Palestine.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

(See EGYPT and (See EXODUS on the plague of flies. Psa_78:45; Psa_105:31. 'Arob, Septuagint translated "dog flies"; their bites severely inflame the eyelids. However, an old Egyptian word retained in Coptic abeb, "a beetle," seems related. The sun god in Egypt was represented in the form of a beetle; thus their sin would be made their instrument of punishment. But the "flies," whether gnats, mosquitoes, or dog flies, literally "devour" (Psa_78:45), conveying the well-known ophthalmia from one to another, and by the larvae entering beneath the skin and intestines, and generating deadly disease. Found in swarms about the arms and canals of the Nile. Figure for troublesome and numerous foes, as Pharaoh Necho's hosts who slew king Josiah at Megiddo (2Ki_23:29-30). Isa_7:18, "the Lord shall hiss for (i.e. summon, as a beemaster whistles for bees) the fly (zibub) in the rivers of Egypt."
Ecc_10:1, "dead flies (zibubim) cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor," i.e. "flies" small in appearance, answer to "a little folly" (sin); "the ointment" of the perfumer answers to the man's "repudiation for wisdom and honor" (Ecc_7:1; Gen_34:30). The more delicate the perfume, the more easily a small corruption, as a dead fly, can spoil it; so the more excellent a character, the greater pity it is to allow a small inconsistency to mar it; e.g., David (2Sa_12:14), Solomon (1 Kings 11), Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 18; 2Ch_19:2), Josiah (2Ch_35:21-22). A little sin, if unchecked, will undermine the whole character (1Co_5:6; Gal_5:9). Beelzebub, the parent of sin, is (as the name means) "the prince of flies." The dthebab of Egypt (Sir G. Wilkinson, Transact. Entom. Soc., 2:183), is like our cleg in N. of England. It assails camels, and generates a disease which, if neglected, kills them; it attacks man too.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Fly. See Flies.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

(Verb; עוּף, ‛ūph πετάομαι, petáomai, or, contracted, ptáomai): Used in preference to ?flee? when great speed is to be indicated. ?To fly? is used: (1) Literally, of birds, ‛ūph (Gen_1:20; Psa_55:6); dā'āh (Deu_28:49), of sparks (Job_5:7); of the arrow (Psa_91:5); of the seraphim (Isa_6:2, Isa_6:6); of an angel (Dan_9:21, ya‛aph, ?to be caused to fly?); of swift action or movement (Psa_18:10; Jer_48:40); of people (Isa_11:14); of a fleet (Isa_60:8; 1Sa_15:19, ‛ı̄t; 1Sa_14:32, ‛āsāh, ?to do,? etc.). (2) Figuratively, of a dream (Job_20:8); of man's transitory life (Psa_90:10); of riches (Pro_23:5); of national glory (Hos_9:11).
For ?fly? the Revised Version (British and American) has ?soar? (Job_39:26) ?fly down? (Isa_11:14); for ?flying? (Isa_31:5) the American Standard Revised Version has ?hovering.?

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

This word occurs in Exo_8:21-22; Exo_8:24; Exo_8:29; Exo_8:31; Psa_78:45; Psa_105:31; all which passages relate to the plague of flies inflicted upon Pharaoh and his people. Some suppose that the dog-fly is meant. Philo, in his Life of Moses, expressly describes this insect as a biting insidious creature, which comes like a dart, with great noise, and rushing with great impetuosity on the skin, sticks to it most tenaciously. All the ancient translators understand by the original word a mixture of noxious creatures. More modern writers are of opinion that a single species only is intended, and have proposed several different insects. Thus, one of the meanings of the original word is 'to darken,' and Mouffet observes that the name agrees with no kind of flies better than with those black, large, compressed flies, which boldly beset cattle, and not only obtain ichor, as other flies, but also suck out blood from beneath, and occasion great pain. He observes that they have no proboscis, but, instead of it, have double sets of teeth, like wasps, which they infix deeply in the skin; and adds that they, greatly infest the ears of days. Other's have proposed the biatta Orientalis or ?gyptia of Linnaeus, as answering considerably to the characteristics of voracity, intrusion into houses, etc. etc. The miracle involved in the plague of flies consisted, partly at least, in the creature being brought against the Egyptians in so great an abundance during winter. The particular species is, however, at present undetermined.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Job_5:7 (a) As the sparks ascend heavenward from the fire, so we should speed our way at once to GOD when trouble comes.

Psa_18:10 (a) This figure represents the speed with which GOD will come to the rescue of David when in trouble. (See also Dan_9:21; Isa_6:6; Isa_60:8; Luk_15:20. Some think this passage may refer to the airplane).

Pro_23:5 (a) Here is a very fine picture of the way that our money and other assets disappear. Usually it is a slow disappearance. When the eagle flies away toward Heaven it gets smaller and smaller to our vision until finally it disappears. So sometimes our health and our wealth gradually disappear until we are left hopeless, hapless and helpless.

Jer_48:40 (a) By this expression the Lord is describing the speed with which He would destroy the country of Moab.

Eze_13:20 (c) This may represent the wiles of evil women who would and did lure men from GOD's path of righteousness.

Hab_1:8 (a) This is the way GOD describes the speed of the Chaldeans when they invaded Israel.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Fly
is the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of two Heb. words. (Egli has a curious article on the name of the butterfly among the Hebrews, in the Zeitschr fur uissenschaftl. Theologie, Jena, 1864, 1.) SEE ANT; SEE BEE;SEE FLEA; SEE GNAT; SEE HORNET; SEE LICE; SEE LOCUST; SEE SCORPION, etc.
1. Zebub' ( זְבוּבSept. μυῖα, Vulg. musca) occurs only in two passages (comp. Wis_16:9; Wis_19:10), namely, Ecclesesiastes 10:1, “Dead zebubim cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor,” and in Isa_7:18, where it is said, “The Lord shall hiss for the zebub that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt.” The Hebrew name, it is probable, is a generic one for any insect, but the etymology is a matter of doubt (see Gesenius, Thes. p. 401; Heb. and Chald. Lex. s.v.; and Furst, Heb. Concord. s.v.). The word zebub, fly, enters as an element into the name originally appropriated to an idol worshipped at Ekron, Baalzebub (2Ki_1:2); but, according to the English version and the Vulgate, in the time of our Lord applied to the prince of daemons, interchangeable with “Satan” (Mat_12:24; Mat_12:26-27). . This “lord of flies” corresponds to the Ζεὺς ἀπόμυιος and the ᾿Ηρακλῆς μυίαγρος of time Greeks and Romans, as if a defender from flies (see Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on 2Ki_1:2). The Greek in the New Testament reads Beelzebul (Βεελ-ζεβούλ, which is said to mean “lord of dung” instead of “lord of flies,” and has been considered as one of those contemptuous puns which the Jews were in the habit of making by slight changes of letters. There might be a peculiar sting in this particular case, from the circumstance that flies are chiefly bred in dunghills, and many species do greatly congregate thither; hence the deity in question, being confessedly a “lord of flies,” must ipso facto be a “dungy lord.” One of the names by which “idols” are expressed in the Old Testament is גַּלּוּלַים, which has the closest affinity with גֵּלֶל, ge'lel, dung. The margin of the English Bible, indeed gives “dungy gods” as the rendering of this Word in Deu_29:17. SEE BEELZEBUL.
In the first quoted passage allusion is made to flies, chiefly of the family Muscidae, getting into vessels of ointment or other substances: even in this country we know what an intolerable annoyance the houseflies are in a hot summer when they abound, crawling everywhere and into everything; but in the East the nuisance is tenfold greater. There the common houseflies (Musca domestica) swarm in immense numbers; and though they inflict no physical injury, yet, from their continual settling on the face, they are inexpressibly annoying. (Rosenmuller, Alterth. IV, 2:420 sq.; Russel, Aleppo, 2:123 sq.; Tavernier, 1:74; compare Prosp. Alp. Dassr. AEgypt. 4:3, p. 207). — In Egypt the peasants are so subject to a virulent kind of ophthalmia that almost every second person is said to be affected with it, and multitudes are blind of either one or both eves. The complaint is greatly augmented by the constant presence of the flies, which congregate around the diseased eyes, attracted by the moisture which exudes; and so useless is it to drive them away, that the miserable people submit to the infliction, and little children are seen with their eyes margined with rows of black flies, of whose presence they appear unconscious, though presenting a most painful sight to Europeans (Lorent. pages 25, 48; compare Forskal, Descr. Anim. page 85; Rosenmuller, in Bochart's Hieroz. 3:342). Thee “ointment of the apothecary,” composed of substances perhaps peculiarly attractive to these impudent intruders, would be likely to become choked up with their entangled bodies, which, corrupting, would be the more offensive for their contrast with the expected odor. Thus would little follies render despicable him who bad a reputation for wisdom. The man is the ointment, his reputation the perfume, his little folly the dead fly, his disgrace the stinking savor. SEE UNGUENT.
Is the other passage, the zebub from the rivers of Egypt has by some writers, as by Oedmann (Vermisch. Samm. 6:79), been identified with the zimb of which Bruce (Trav. 5:190) gives a description, and which is evidently some species of Tabanus. Sir G. Wilkinson has given some account (Transac. of the Entomological Soc. 2, page 183) of an injurious fly under the name of dthebab, a term almost identical with zebub. It would not do to press too much upon this point when it is considered that Egypt abounds with noxious insects; but it must be allowed that there is some reason for this identification; and though, as was stated above, zebub is probably a generic name for any flea, in this passage of Isaiah ei may be used, to denote some very troublesome and Injurious fly, κατ᾿ ἐξοχήν. “The dthebab is a long gray fly which comes out about the rise of the Nile, and is like the cleg of the north of England; it abounds in calm hot weather, and is often met with in June and July, both in the desert and on the Nile.” This insect is very injurious to camels, and causes their death if the disease which it generates is neglected; it attacks both man and beast. The phrase hissing, or, rather, histing, for the fly (Isa_7:18) is explained in the article BEE SEE BEE.
2. Arob' (עָרֹב; Sept. κυνόμυια, Vulg. omne genus muscarum, muscae diversi generis, musca gravissima; but in Psalm canomyia; A.V. “swarms of flies,” “divers sorts of flies”), the name of the insect or insects which God, sent to punish Pharaoh (Exo_8:21-31; see Psa_78:45; Psa_105:31). The question as to what particular insect is denoted by arob, or whether any one species is to be understood by it, has long been a matter. of, dispute. The scriptural details are as follows: the arob filled the houses of the Egyptians, they covered the ground, they lighted on the people, the land was laid waste on their account. From the expression in Psa_105:31, “there remained not one,” some writers have concluded that the Heb. word points to some definite species; we do not think, however, that much stress ought to be laid upon this argument; if the arob be taken to denote “swarms,” as the A.V. leaders it, the “not one remaining” may surely have for its antecedent an individual fly understood in the collective “swarms.” The Sept. explain arob by κυνόμυια, i.e., “dog-fly;” it is not very clear what insect is meant by the Greek term, which is frequent in Homer, who often uses it as an abusive epithet. Thus he, represents Mars as applying the epithet to Minerva for instigating the gods to quarrel (II. 21:394). It is also referred to as an insect by AElian, who, in describing the myops, tabanus, or horse-fly, says it is similar to what is called the κυνόμυια (Hist. Anim. 4:51). Philo, in his Life of Joses (1:23, page 401, ed. Mangey), expressly describes it as a biting insidious creature, which comes like a dart, with great noise, and, rushing with great impetuosity on the skin, sticks to it most tenaciously. It seems likely that Jerome, in translating Exodus, derived the word from עָרִב, “to mingle,” and understood by it a mixture of noxious creatures, as did Josephus, Aquila, and all the ancient translators. The diversity of Jerome's renderings in Exodus, however, betokens his uncertainty, and. in the Psalms he has adopted that of the Septuagint. More modern writers, reasoning on other senses of the Hebrew word, which are somewhat numerous, have proposed several different insects.
Thus one of the meanings of עָרִב is “to darken,” and Mouffet observes that the name cynomyia agrees with no kind of flies better than with those black, large, compressed flies which boldly beset cattle, and not only obtain ichor, as other flies, but also suck out blood from beneath, and occasion great pain. He observes that they have no proboscis, but, instead of it, have double sets of teeth, like wasps, which they infix deeply in the skin; and adds that they greatly infest the ears of dogs (Theat. Insect. 111). Pliny describes an insect of this kind (Hist. Nat. 11:40); so also Columella (7:13). (See Pliny by Grandsagne and Cuvier, Parisus, 1828, 2:461, note.) But the ancient naturalists generally describe the cynomyia as a sort of whame-fly (Tabanus), which might include both senses, for this genus is most impudently pertinacious in its assaults, spares neither man nor beast, gorges itself to bursting with blood, infusing an irritating venom at the same time, and occurs, in suitable localities even in our own climate, in immense numbers. If the arob was composed of one or more species of Tabanidae, miraculously augmented in numbers, and preternaturally induced to penetrate into the houses, such a visitation would be a plague of no slight intensity, even supposing their blood-thirstiness and pertinacity, individually considered, to be of no higher standard than we are accustomed to see. It is not improbable that one of the Hippoboscidae, perhaps H. equina, Linn., is the κυνόμυια of AElian (N.A. 4:51), though Homer may have used the compound term to denote extreme impudence, implied by the shamelessness of the dog and the teasing impertinence of the common fly (Musca). As the arob are said to have filled the houses of the
Egyptians, it seems not improbable that common flies (Muscidae) are more especially intended, and that the compound κυνόμυια denotes the grievous nature of the plague, though we see no reason to restrict the arob to any one family. “Of insects,” says Sonnini (Trav. 3:199), “the most troublesome in Egypt are flies; both man and beast are cruelly tormented with them. No idea can be formed of their obstinate rapacity. It is in vain to drive them away; they return again in the self-same moment, and their perseverance wearies out the most patient spirit.” The arob may include various species of Culicidae (gnats), such as the musquito, if it is necessary to interpret the “devouring” nature of the arob (in Psa_78:45) in a strictly literal sense; though the expression used by the Psalmist is not inapplicable to the flies, which even to this day in Egypt may be regarded as a “plague,” and which are the great instrument of spreading the well- known ophthalmia, this being conveyed from one individual to another by these dreadful pests; or the literal meaning of the arob “devouring” the Egyptians may be understood in its fullest sense of the Muscidae if we suppose that the people may have been punished by the larvae gaining admittance into the bodies, as into the stomach, frontal sinus, and intestines, and so occasioning in a hot climate many instances of death (see, for cases of Myasis produced by Dipterous larvae, Transactions of Entomol. Soc. 2:266-269). SEE GNAT.
The identification of the arob with the cockroach (Blatta Orientalis), which Oedmann (Verm. Sam. part 2, c. 7) suggests, and which Kirby (Bridgw. Treat. 2:357) adopts, has nothing at all to recommend it, and is purely gratuitous, as Mr. Hope proved in 1837 in a paper on this subject in the Trans. Ent. Soc. 2:179-183. The error of calling the cockroach a beetle, and the confusion which has been made between it and the sacred beetle of Egypt (Ateuchus sacer), has recently been repeated by M. Kalisch (Hist. and Crit. Comment. Exodus 1.c.). The cockroach, as Mr. Hope remarks, is a nocturnal insect, and prowls about for food at night; “but what reason have we to believe that the fly attacked the Egyptians by night and not by day ?” The miracle involved in the plague of flies consisted, partly at least, in the creature being brought against the Egyptians in so great an abundance during winter. Possibly, however, the better rendering of the Hebrew would be beetles. (See Wibel's treatise, Ueber der Arob. in the “Fruhaufgelesene Fruchte,” 1738, page 244.) SEE BEETLE.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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