Deuteronomy 7:20
in Deuteronomy 7Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them until even the survivors hiding from you have perished.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Moreover Jehovah thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves, perish from before thee.
KJV
Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
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This verse in Deuteronomy 7
Commentary
6 notes on this verseMoreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them,.... Not a single one, but several of them, and which may be understood of creatures so called, which resemble wasps, only twice as large, an insect very bold and venomous; see Exo 23:28. Aben Ezra interprets it of the leprosy: until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed; such of the Canaanites who escaped the sword of the Israelites, and hid themselves in holes and caverns of the earth; these the hornets would find out and sting them to death, until they were all destroyed.
This site's exposition
send the hornet among them
on Deuteronomy 7:20-21
The hornet appears three times in Scripture, here, at Exodus 23:28 and at Joshua 24:12, and in each place God sends it ahead of Israel. Readers have taken it three ways. Gill reports Aben Ezra reading it as a disease, others hold to the insects themselves, and a further reading takes the hornet for Egyptian military pressure on Canaan, since the bee served as a royal emblem in Egypt. Verse 21 puts the ground of courage in one clause, the LORD thy God is among you, which is the presence housed in the tabernacle in the middle of the camp.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
God plagued the Egyptians with flies, but the Canaanites with hornets. Those who take not warning by less judgments on others may expect greater on themselves. But the great encouragement of Israel was that they had God among them, a mighty God and terrible,
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
That people accordingly were truly happy as a nation, and found every promise which the faithful God made to them amply fulfilled, so long as they adhered to that obedience which was required of them.
LET us spiritualize the story of the conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel. Canaan was given to Abraham and to his seed by a covenant of salt. Our body, soul, and spirit are given to Christ Jesus to be His portion and His heritage— and the newborn principle within us which represents the seed of Israel is to conquer the whole of our manhood for Christ that He may have possession of it in all its powers and passions, parts and faculties.
LET us spiritualize the story of the conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel. Canaan was given to Abraham and to his seed by a covenant of salt. Our body, soul, and spirit are given to Christ Jesus to be His portion and His heritage— and the newborn principle within us which represents the seed of Israel is to conquer the whole of our manhood for Christ that He may have possession of it in all its powers and passions, parts and faculties. When our Lord Jesus Christ died, He died not only for our souls but also for our bodies—He did not purchase a right to a part of us only but to the entire man. He contemplated in His passion the sanctification of us wholly—spirit, soul, and body—that in this triple kingdom He Himself might reign supreme without a rival. It is the business of the newborn nature which God has given to the regenerate to assert the rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. "My Soul, so far as you are a child of God, you must conquer all the rest of yourself which yet remains unblest. You must subdue all your powers and passions to the silver scepter of Jesus' gracious reign, and you must never be satisfied till He who is the King by purchase becomes also the King by gracious coronation, and reigns in you supreme." Although Israel had Canaan by right, the Jebusites and eight mighty nations had it in possession. And alas, we are made painfully to feel that though Christ has a right to us and He alone should reign in our mortal bodies, yet sin has a dwelling place in us! Those old sins which were born with us and seem as if they will never die till we, ourselves, are wrapped in our winding sheets, have entered into us and will dwell in us.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְגַם֙ | vegam | and also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַצִּרְעָ֔ה | hatzirah | the hornet | H6880 → | |
| יְשַׁלַּ֛ח | yeshalach | he will send | H7971 → | 845 times |
| יְהוָ֥ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ | ʾeloheikha | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
| בָּ֑ם | bam | among <the> them | ||
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| אֲבֹ֗ד | ʾavod | perish | H6 → | 184 times |
| הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֛ים | hanisharim | [those] who remain | H7604 → | 133 times |
| וְהַנִּסְתָּרִ֖ים | vehanistarim | and [those] who hide themselves | H5641 → | 80 times |
| מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃ | mipaneikha | from before you | H6440 → | 2123 times |
וְגַם֙and also
vegamH1571 →769 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַצִּרְעָ֔הthe hornet
hatzirahH6880 →
יְשַׁלַּ֛חhe will send
yeshalachH7971 →845 times
יְהוָ֥הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָGod your
ʾeloheikhaH430 →2601 times
בָּ֑םamong <the> them
bam
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
אֲבֹ֗דperish
ʾavodH6 →184 times
הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֛ים[those] who remain
hanisharimH7604 →133 times
וְהַנִּסְתָּרִ֖יםand [those] who hide themselves
vehanistarimH5641 →80 times
מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃from before you
mipaneikhaH6440 →2123 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
2 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Joshua 24:12I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Amorite kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow.
it leads to
- Exodus 23:28
I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.
- Psalms 44:3–6
For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because…
- Exodus 23:28
About Deuteronomy

This page draws on Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 673: “Secret Sins Driven Out By Stinging Hornets” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
