1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Deuteronomy 7:20 | *Moreover the Lord thy God will send also hornets among them, until he destroy and consume all that have escaped thee, and could hide themselves. Exodus 23:28.; Josue 24:12. | Hornets. Abenezra understands the leprosy, which the Hebrew may also signify. But hornets and such like insects are very destructive in hot countries; and Pausanias informs us that the Minsiens were driven out of their country by them. (Calmet) --- God destroyed the army of Sapor II, the Persian king, by sending an army of gnats, at the prayer of St. James of Nisibis, A.D. 350. "Lord, said the saint, thou art able by the weakest means to humble the pride of thy enemies, defeat these multitudes by an army of gnats." (Butler, Lives of the Saints, July 11.) --- We may, therefore, explain this text in a literal sense. (Calmet) (Wisdom 12:8., and 16:9., and Josue 24:12.) |