Fly, flies

(Ex. 8:21, Is. 7:18, Eccl. 10:1)—name for a kind of insect well known to everyone for its troublesomeness and the annoyance it causes. Flies are numerous in Egypt and Judea, and one of their kinds, found by modern travelers near the river Nile and called the Abyssinian fly (zebub), is also as large as a bee and so harmful to cattle and other animals that shepherds are often compelled to abandon their pastures and flee from the places where this fly appears, or to save themselves from its sting by throwing themselves into sand or sea mud.

Cattle are struck with terror at the sight of these insects; even the elephant and the rhinoceros, though their skin is covered with an abundant layer of mud, are unable to protect themselves from its sting. The vexation and disturbance caused by this insect were so great that the Canaanites even had a special deity whose particular function was to protect them from flies (Beelzebub—the god of flies). From this we may judge of the terrible nature of the fourth plague of Egypt, mentioned in the Book of Exodus (8:24).

“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the prophet Isaiah, “that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes” (Is. 7:18)—meaning that this scourge would appear even in those very places in which cattle usually take refuge for protection from this tormenting insect.

Some species of flies in hot countries crawl into the nose, ears, and eyes; others lay their eggs under the skin and produce a painful and dangerous disease—a skin inflammation. Ecclesiastes compares a small folly in a person held in honor to the harm and damage done to a precious ointment by a perfumer, if a few dead flies get into it (Eccl. 10:1).