We read of this insect a particularly commissioned by the Lord, to punish and drive out the enemies of Israel. In hot countries, it may easily be conceived, how formidable a swarm of such creatures armed with stings must become to any people, and especially when sent, like the flies of Egypt, in judgment by the Lord. (See Deuteronomy 7:20; Joshua 24:12) But some, beside the history of the fact itself, in the hornets the Lord literally and truly sent to drive out before Israel their enemies, take the expression also in a figurative sense, and consider hornets from the Lord as the buzzing and stinging effects of a guilty conscience. And these age still more formidable and alarming. "I will send my fear before thee, saith the Lord." (Exodus 23:27-28) And where the Lord sends his fear, a man's own feelings will make him flee.
See Flies