bee Summary and Overview

First mentioned in Deut. 1:44. Swarms of bees, and the danger of their attacks, are mentioned in Ps. 118:12. Samson found a "swarm of bees" in the carcass of a lion he had slain (Judg. 14:8). Wild bees are described as laying up honey in woods and in clefts of rocks (Deut. 32:13; Ps. 81:16). In Isa. 7:18 the "fly" and the "bee" are personifications of the Egyptians and Assyrians, the inveterate enemies of Israel.

(deborah). #De 1:44; Jud 14:8; Ps 118:12; Isa 7:18| Bees abounded in Israel, honey being a common article of food #Ps 81:16| and was often found in the clefts of rocks and in hollow trees. #1Sa 14:25,27| English naturalists know little of the species of bees that are found in Israel, but are inclined tn believe that the honey-bee of Israel is distinct from the honey-bee (Apis mellifica) of this country. The passage in #Isa 7:18| refers "to the custom of the people in the East of calling attention to any one by a significant hiss or rather hist." We read, #Jud 14:8| that "after a time," probably many days, Samson returned to the carcass of the lion he had slain, and saw bees and honey therein. "If any one here represents to himself a corrupt and putrid carcass, the occurrence ceases to have any true similitude, for it is well known that in these countries, at certain seasons of the year, the heat will in the course of twenty-four hours completely dry up the moisture of dead camels, and that, without their undergoing decomposition their bodies long remain like mummies, unaltered and entirely free from offensive odor."--Edmann.

BEE . Deut 1:44. The honeybee is probably the only species alluded to in the Bible. They must have been very numerous in Canaan, as honey was a common article of food, 1 Kgs 14:3; Ps 81:16; Song of Solomon 5:1; Isa 7:15, and commerce. Eze 27:17. The disposition of bees to take vengeance on any one who disturbs their hive is alluded to in Ps 118:12. Isa 7:18 doubtless finds its explanation "in the custom of the people in the East of attracting the attention of any one by a significant hiss, or rather hist." Zech 10:8. We read, Jud 14:8, that "after a time," probably many days, Samson returned to the carcass of the lion he had slain, and saw bees and honey therein. "If any one here represents to himself a corrupt and putrid carcass, the occurrence ceases to have any true similitude, for it is well known that in these countries, at certain seasons of the year, the heat will in the course of twenty-four hours so completely dry up the moisture of dead camels, and that, without their undergoing decomposition, their bodies long remain like mummies, unaltered and entirely free from offensive odor."--Oedmann. Wild bees often deposited their honey in hollow trees or the clefts of rocks. Ps 81:16; 1 Sam 14:25-27. See Honey.

(Deborah.) Whence Rebekah's nurse (Genesis 35:8) and the judge (Judges 4) were named; the bee's industry, fruitfulness, and sweetness suggesting the similitude. In Deuteronomy 1:44 "the Amorites chased you as bees do"; Psalm 118:12; Isaiah 7:18; the bold pertinacity with which bees in swarming hosts assail the object of their wrath is the point of comparison. "The Lord shall hiss for the bee that is in the land of Assyria"; i.e., He will call for the enemy to invade the Holy Land. Bees were drawn out of their hives by hissing or whistling. They were as numerous in Assyria as "the fly" in marshy Egypt. "They shall come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the reeks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes"; the foes, like bees, swarming and settling on all places. Hereafter He will "hiss for" His people to "gather them, for He hath redeemed them" (Zechariah 10:8). Wild honey, such as John Baptist ate (Matthew 3:4), abounded in Israel, often liquid, whence the land is described as "flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8). Often found in the rocks (Psalm 81:16; Deuteronomy 32:13), or in a hollow tree (1 Samuel 14:25). Samson, having slain a young lion, found on his return within the dried carcass a swarm of bees and honeycomb, with which he refreshed himself and iris father and mother, without telling them whence it came. (The heat in 24 hours often so dries up the moisture that, without decomposition, the bodies remain like mummies, free from odor.) Hence, he made a riddle: "out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness" (Judges 14:14). A type of the antitypical Samson the stronger One, spoiling the strong and roaring lion, "dividing the spoils" among His friends, and bringing forth life and divine nourishment out of death, and sweetness out of misery (Luke 11:21-22; Hebrews 2:14-15). Samson's history, of which this incident is the epitome, sets forth Satan's lion-like violence and harlot-like subtlety, overruled by divine might to his own destruction and fallen man's redemption. The scarcity of honey (dibash) in Egypt is implied in Jacob's thinking "a little honey" worth including in the present sent to conciliate the Egyptian viceroy (Genesis 43:11); but it was the boiled down, thickened juice of grapes, dates, etc., still called dibs, an article of commerce in the E., which Jacob sent Joseph, and which the Tyrians brought from Israel (Ezekiel 27:17). The decoction of the grape, or must boiled down, is mixed with wine or milk, and looks like coarse honey. In Isaiah 7:15-16, of Immanuel it is written, "butter and honey shall He eat," i.e. curdled milk (the acid of which is grateful in the hot East) and honey mixed together shall He eat, as the ordinary food of infants, marking His real humanity (Luke 2:52). In the type, the prophetess' child, a state of distress is also implied; when, owing to invaders, milk and honey, things produced spontaneously, should be the only abundant articles of food. That distress and the invasion should cease before the child reached the age of consciousness to distinguish good and evil. The commonness of honey in Israel as an article of diet appears in 2 Samuel 17:29; 2 Kings 14:3; Jeremiah 41:8; Ezekiel 16:13; Ezekiel 16:19.