Isaiah 7:17-25 The LORD shall bring on you, and on your people, and on your father's house, days that have not come… Bees and swarms of flies are used as a Homeric image for swarms of peoples (Il. 2:87). Here the images are likewise emblematic. The Egyptian people, being unusually numerous, is compared to the swarming fly; and the Assyrian people, being warlike and eager for conquest, is compared to the stinging bee, which is so difficult to turn sway (Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalm 118:12). The emblems also correspond to the nature of the two countries; the fly to slimy Egypt, which, from being such, abounds in insects (chap. 18:1), and the bee to the more mountainous and woody Assyria, where bee-culture still constitutes one of the principal branches of trade in the present day. (F. Delitzsch.) Parallel Verses KJV: The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. |
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