Topic
Lice
7 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Psalms 105:31Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Plague of
He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.
- Exodus 8:16–18Easton · Smith
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth,…
- Exodus 8:16ISBE
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 8:16–19Nave Plague of
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth,…
- Exodus 8:17ISBE
And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 8:18ISBE
And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
- Isaiah 51:6ISBE
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my…
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 2 references
(Heb. kinnim), the creatures employed in the third plague sent upon Egypt (Ex. 8:16-18). They were miraculously produced from the dust of the land. “The entomologists Kirby and Spence place these minute but disgusting insects in the very front rank of those which inflict injury upon man. A terrible list of examples they have collected of the ravages of this and closely allied parasitic pests.” The plague of lice is referred to in Ps. 105:31.
Some have supposed that the word denotes not lice properly, but gnats. Others, with greater probability, take it to mean the “tick” which is much larger than lice.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 2 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 11 references
lis (kinnim (Ex 8:17,18; Ps 105:31), kinnim (Ex 8:16), kinnam (Ex 8:17,18); Septuagint skniphes (Ex 8:16,18), ton sknipha, once in Ex 8:18; sknipes (Ps 105:31); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) scniphes; according to Liddell and Scott, under the word sknips, Slav. sknipa equals culex): The references, both in Exodus and in Psalms, are all to the plague of "lice." the Revised Version margin suggests "fleas" or "sandflies." The Septuagint rendering would favor "sandflies" or "mosquitoes," between which two insects the Old Testament writers would hardly be expected to discriminate. Mosquitoes belong to the order of Diptera, family Culicidae; the sandfly (Plebotomus papataci) to the family of Simuliidae of the same order. The sandflies are much smaller than mosquitoes, and are nearly noiseless, but give a sharp sting which may leave an unpleasant irritation. They are abundant in the Levant. In Southern Europe they cause the "three-day fever" or "papataci." As stated under GNAT (which see), there is little ground other than the authority of the Septuagint for deciding between "lice," "fleas," "sand-flies," or "mosquitoes" as translations of kinnim. See also under GNAT the note on ken, the Revised Version margin "gnat" (Isa 51:6).
Alfred Ely Day
In the topical indexes
Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 2 references, grouped by sub-topic
- → Plague of Ex 8:16-19; Ps 105:31
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.