Running From Bees or Hornets

Descriptions of Bees and Wasp Animations: I've included here a wide variety of black and yellow insects. These can either look frightening, or cute, on your web pages, depending upon the experiences that you've had with them.  

       The running animation below was made by Kathy Grimm to encourage God's people to use Christian web content for the illustration of their online articles and church web pages. Please include a link back to our little blog in a caption beneath the animation should you decide to publish it again in another article.

I also used this little animated character to illustrate Psalm 40:17 at Christian Clip Art Review.

       The Hornet is mentioned three times in the Old Testament. all the ancient versions agree in the translation of the Hebrew word tsirah. In each passage this insect is mentioned as a weapon in the hands of the Lord with which to punish the Canaanites and drive them from their habitations; 

• "I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way." Exodus 23:28 (NIV)
• "Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished." Deuteronomy 7:20 (NIV)

Animated resting hornet.

Hornets are abundant in Palestine, and no doubt they were so in former times. In Joshua a city of Judah named Zoreah, or 'place of the hornets,' and whether the threat be regarded in a literal sense, or used as a forcible image, its appropriateness is apparent. There are historical instances of hornets having rendered certain districts uninhabitable, and by their abundance and the frequency of their attacks, of their having driven people from their homes. AElian informs us that the Phaselites, a people dwelling about the mountains of Solyma, were driven from their country by wasps. Nevertheless it is probable that the insect is used as a metaphorical illustration. In Joshua 

• "I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you--also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow." Joshua 24:12 (NIV)

reads more like an Eastern image than an account of an event. In Deuteronomy and elsewhere, the 'bees in Seir' are accredited with similar powers. The writers of the Talmud took the literal view, and enforced it by statements of how one could sting a man and four could sting a horse to death, but the sting should be in the eye. 

Animation of a
bee whose sting
has stuck in a
wall.

       The hornet belongs to the same genus (Vespa) as the wasp, and forms the group next the bees in the Aculeata, or stinging hymenoptera. The commonest species met with in Palestine and the warmer parts of Southern Europe is V. Orientalis, which is distinct from the British species, V. crabro. The Oriental hornet does not appear to be irritable, but permits of specimens being procured without difficulty. They are fond of flitting about wells and gardens, and sometimes fight with one another with great determination. They have a very wicked appearance, and a peculiarly long-bodied species obtained in Sinai looks most alarming. It is probably only when their nests are disturbed that they are really dangerous. Nearly fifty species of wasp and hornet have been obtained from Sinai and the adjoining parts of Egypt and Arabia. Chinchester

Animated bee fly.

Animated buzzing bee.

Animated nodding bee.

Animated spinning bee.