H2070 H2070
flies; used literally of dead flies and metaphorically of Egypt's army as swarming insects
The word for 'fly' appears in two vivid contexts. In Ecclesiastes 10:1, dead flies ruin the perfumer's ointment—a proverbial image of how small corruptions spoil great works. In Isaiah 7:18, Yahweh will 'whistle for the fly that is in Egypt' as a metaphor for summoning the Egyptian army (paired with the bee representing Assyria). The imagery draws on the fly's swarming, intrusive nature. The Arabic cognate and related Semitic terms all emphasize the creature's darting, to-and-fro motion.
Senses
1. sense 1 — The common fly as a pest and symbol of corruption or invasion. Ecclesiastes uses it literally ('dead flies') to illustrate how minor defilements corrupt valuable things. Isaiah deploys it metaphorically: Egypt's military forces are portrayed as a cloud of flies that Yahweh summons with a whistle—an image both of divine sovereignty and the invasive, pestilential character of foreign armies. The Aramaic and Arabic cognates confirm this as the ordinary word for the insect. 2×
AR["زِبُوبَي", "لِلذُّبَابِ"]·ben["-মাছিকে", "মাছি-সমূহ"]·DE["[זבובי]", "[לזבוב]"]·EN["flies-of", "for-the-fly"]·FR["[לזבוב]", "זבובי"]·heb["זבובי", "ל-זבוב"]·HI["मक्खियाँ", "मक्खी-को"]·ID["Lalat-lalat", "kepada-lalat"]·IT["[לזבוב]", "flies-di"]·jav["kangge-laler", "laler-laler"]·KO["파리-를", "파리들"]·PT["Moscas-de", "para-a-mosca"]·RU["Мухи", "мухе"]·ES["a-la-mosca", "moscas-de"]·SW["Nzi-wa", "kwa-nzi"]·TR["sinege", "sinekleri"]·urd["مکھی-کو", "مکھیاں"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† זְבוּב n.m. Ec 10:1 fly (as moving to and fro in the air? cf. Fl NHWB i. 438 b; NH id., Assyrian zumbu, DlS 63 f.; Arabic دُبَابٌ, Aramaic דִּיבָבָא, ܕܶܒܳܐ, ܕܶܒܳܒܳܐ );—lit. only זְבוּבֵי מָוֶת Ec 10:1 i.e. dead flies; so AV RV Hi Now al.; > 𝔊 De al. death-bringing, deadly flies; זְבוּב metaph. of Egyptian army Is 7:18 (‖ דְּבוֹרָה, bee, of Assyrian); on בַּעַל זְבוּב v. בַּעַל" dir="rtl" >בַּעַל II.4, p. 127 supr.