Mouse, mice
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Prov. 30:26, Is. 66:17, 1 Sam. 6:5)—a well-known small domestic animal, of the order of rodents. By the Law of Moses, mice are classed among unclean animals, and to those Israelites who defile themselves by eating such abominations the prophets proclaim terrible destruction from the Lord (Is. 66:17). In the Book of Proverbs the wisdom of the rock badgers—or, as here, of mountain mice—is pointed out: “the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks” (30:26 [as cited]).
God also uses mice as an instrument of His punishment upon men. When the Philistines, having defeated the Israelites, took among the spoil the Ark of the Covenant also, God struck them with diseases, and their land was filled with mice, which laid waste their fields, and the Philistines, seeing the punishment of God, were compelled to return to the Israelites their sacred object.