THE HORNET — a word that occurs in exactly three verses of the Hebrew Bible, always singular, always with the definite article, and always the same promise: something sent ahead of Israel to drive the inhabitants out. Exodus 23:28 (already on these pages), Deuteronomy 7:20, and Joshua 24:12 (not yet on these pages). ⚠ A consonantal search returns thirteen verses, but ten are the town of ZORAH, Samson’s birthplace, spelled identically — the calibration case for reading hits rather than quoting a tally. ⚠ Nine of the thirteen versions this project follows read an insect. The four that do not are one translation in two languages and two editions each: the NWT 1984 and 2013 both read ‘the feeling of dejection’, the TNM 1987 «el sentimiento de decaimiento» and the TNM 2019 «hará que sientan desánimo». That derives the noun from a root meaning to strike and reads the panic sent ahead of an army — a real minority position, not a doctrinal one, and the same panic Exodus 23:27 promises one verse before its own hornet — but it is an interpretation of an obscure noun rather than what the noun ordinarily means. → first discussed at Deut 7:20