Deuteronomy 1:44

Deu 1:44. As bees — As bees, which, being provoked, come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue their adversary and disturber.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:44 Hormah is perhaps modern Khirbet el-Meshash, a site seven miles southeast of Beersheba. The ancient name is derived from the verb kharam, which means to “devastate” or “annihilate.” The Israelites indeed devastated Hormah (Num 14:45; 21:3).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 44. The Amorites - chased you] See Clarke on Nu 14:40: as bees do - by irresistible numbers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(44) As bees do.—This should be observed as illustrating what is said of the hornet in Exo_23:28-30, and further on in Deu_7:20; Jos_24:12. The incidental mention of the bees in this place shows that the writer of Deuteronomy was familiar with the spectacle of a company of men pursued by bees.

In Seir, even unto Hormah.—Conder (Bible Handbook, p. 250) understands this Seir as the range of hills round Petra. There is another Seir in the territory of Judah (Jos_15:10). As to Hormah, the Jewish commentator Aben Ezra says, “the name of a place or the verb,” i.e., either unto Hormah, or unto utter destruction. But in our version the word Hormah is always taken as a proper name. The situation of Hormah is unknown.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

44. the Amorites] So D characteristically (see above on Deu_1:7) names the peoples whom J, Num_14:45, calls Amalekites and Canaanites.

as bees do] Swarming in their multitudes; cp. Isa_7:18; Psa_118:12; Iliad, ii. 87 ff., ‘As when the tribes of thronging bees issue from some hollow rock.’

in Seir] Se‘îr, the frequent name of the territory of Edom, extended to the W. as well as to the E. of the ‘Arabah; and if that be here intended Israel’s defeat took place on Edomite soil; Sam. ‘in Gebala’ (Gebal being a late post-exilic name for the N. part of Edom’s territory on the E. of the ‘Arabah, Psa_83:8 : see ‘Land of Edom’ by the present writer in Expositor, seventh series, vol. vi. pp. 331, 515). LXX and other versions read from Se‘îr, which on such a reading would be a definite district in the N. whence Israel were driven southward to Ḥormah. And as Se‘îr, rough or shaggy, appears as the name of other localities than the land of Edom (cp. Jos_15:10; Jdg_3:26; Tell-el-Amarna Letters, Winckler’s ed. No. 181, line 26) it is possible that this is but another application of it to some place on the S. border of Palestine. But in that case one must not think of it as the plain of Seer, S.E. of Be’er-sheba‘, which Trumbull (K. B. 93) identifies with the Edomite Se‘îr (cf. Driver); for the spelling of that, first correctly given by J. Wilson (Lands of the Bible, i. 345) and. confirmed by Palmer (Des. of the Exod. ii. 404) and Musil (Edom, i. 9, etc.), as Sirr, is radically different from Se‘îr.

unto Hormah] Not now to be identified. Musil’s lists and maps discover no such place-name. The tradition of the origin of the name is double. According to JE, Num_21:3, it was so called because Israel devoted to the ḥerem or ban the Canaanites whom they defeated there; but in Jdg_1:17 because Judah and Simeon did the same upon their victory. The place lay in Judah in the Negeb on the border of Edom, Jos_12:14; Jos_15:30; cp. 1Sa_30:30; but it was Simeon’s according to Jos_19:4, 1Ch_4:30. In Jdg_1:17 the ancient name is given as Ṣephath; and es-Sbaita (Musil, Edom, ii. 37 ff.) has been suggested as its mod. equivalent, but the radicals of the name are not the same. The situation, however, is suitable; some 25 miles N.N.E. of ‘Ain-Ḳudeis.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Amorites which dwelt in the mountain,.... Elsewhere called Canaanites, being one, and a principal one of the seven nations of Canaan, and who were joined and assisted in the attack by the Amalekites, Num 14:45.

came out against you, and chased you, as bees do; which being disturbed in their hives come out in great numbers, and with great fury and ardour (for, though a small creature, it has a great deal of spirit); and pursue the aggressor, and leave him not till they have stung him, though thereby they lose their stings, and quickly their lives, at least their usefulness; so these Amorites, being irritated at the approach of the Israelites on their borders, came out in great numbers and with great wrath, and fell upon them and smote them, and pursued them a long way, as is after expressed, though these in the issue were destroyed themselves. The Syriac version renders it, "as bees that are smoked": or irritated by smoke; which is a method that has been used, and was anciently: to dispossess them of their hives, and get their honey, as Bochart (p) from various writers has shown, as from Virgil (q), Ovid (r), and others; and when they are too much smoked become exceeding angry as Aristotle (s) and Pliny (t) observe; and which same writers take notice of the strength and force of their stings, as that they will kill with them the largest animals, even horses have been killed by them; and, though such small feeble creatures, are not afraid to attack men and beasts; yea, sometimes people have been obliged to leave their habitations, and have been driven out of their country by them, of which Aelianus (u) gives an instance; all which shows the aptness and propriety of this simile; see Psa 118:12 and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah; pursued them as far as Mount Seir, even to another place on the borders of Edom, which was called Hormah, either from the destruction now or afterwards made here; See Gill on Num 14:45, though some take it not to be the proper name of a place, but an appellative, and render it, "even unto destruction"; so the Jerusalem Targum; that is, destroyed them with an utter destruction.

(p) Hierozoic, par. 2. l. 4. c. 10. col. 507. (q) "-----Fumosque manu", &c. Virgil. Georgic. l. 4. v. 230. (r) "Quid, cum suppositos", &c. Ovid. de Remed. Amor. l. 1. v. 185. (s) Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 40. (t) Nat Hist. l. 11. c. 16, 18. (u) De Animal. l. 17. c. 35.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Amorites - In Num 14:45, it is “the Amalekites and the Canaanites” who are said to have discomfited them. The Amorites, as the most powerful nation of Canaan, lend their name here, as in other passages (eg. Deu 1:7) to the Canaanite tribes generally.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Bees do. This similitude shews the vivacity, courage, and numbers of those who pursued the Hebrews from Seir to Horma. See Numbers xxi. 3., Psalm cvii. 12., and Isaias vii. 18.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

As bees do; as bees which being provoked come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue and sting their adversary and disturber, Psa 118:12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

44. The Amorites — Called also the Canaanites, in Num_14:43.

Hormah — Comp. Num_14:45. See note on Num_26:3.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Amorites, for the Canaanites generally; in Numbers, the Amalekites are specially mentioned as joining with the Amorites in chastising the Israelites. These tribes came down from the higher mountain range to the lower height which the Israelites had gained, and drove them with great slaughter as far as Hormah, in Seir, chasing them as bees do, which pursue with keen ferocity those who disturb them. Hormah (Banplace), the earlier name of which was Zephath, (Jud_1:17) was a royal city of the Canaanites, taken by the Israelites towards the close of their wanderings, and placed by them under a ban, (Num_21:1, etc.) which ban was fully executed only in the time of the Judges. It is here and elsewhere called Hormah by anticipation. The old name Zephath seems to have survived that given to it by the Israelites in the name Sebaita or Sepata, the Arabic form of Zephath, the name of a heap of ruins on the western slope of the rocky mountain-plateau Rakhmah, about two hours and a half south-west of Khalasa (Ritter, "Geography of Palestine," 1:431; Palmer, "Desert of Et-Tih," p. 289, etc.). This is a more probable identification than that of Robinson ("Res.," 2:18), who finds Hormah in the rocky defile of Es-Sufah, an unlikely place for a city of the importance of Zephath to be in.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As bees - As bees which being provoked come out of their hives in great numbers, and with great fury pursue their adversary and disturber.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

כאשר תעשינה הדברים [AND THEY PURSUED YOU] AS BEES DO — Just as a bee when it stings a person it dies immediately, similarly they (the Amorites): when they attacked you they died immediately (Numbers Rabbah 17:3).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.