Exodus 23:28

“And I will send hornets before thee, etc.] 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…”

“I will send hornets before thee, &c. (See on Jos 24:12) --Some instrument of divine judgment, but variously interpreted: as hornets in a literal sense [BOCHART]; as a pestilential disease [ROSENMULLER]; as a terror of the Lord, an extraordinary dejection [JUNIUS].”

“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. return to 'Top of Page'”

“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. Deu 7:20; Jos 24:11 Exodus 23:29”