HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H6550
פַּרְעֹשׁ
par.osh — flea
flea
2 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
Flea
Original Hebrew / Aramaic / Greek connected to this term
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H6551
פַּרְעֹשׁ
par.osh — Parosh
A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Ezr.2.3 § Parosh or Pharosh = "flea" 1) ancestor of a family who returned from exile with Zerubbabel and a 2nd group who returned with Ezra 2) a leader of the people who signed the covenant with Nehemiah
6 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G8065
κόνυζα
konuza — a briar
a strong-smelling plant, fleabane, pulicaria , poetry κνύζα, (Theocritus Poeta Bucolicus) (ML)
0 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G9803
ψύλλος
psullos — a flea
a flea
0 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →Historical dictionary entry
David at the cave of Adullam thus addressed his persecutor Saul (1 Sam. 24:14): “After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea?” He thus speaks of himself as the poor, contemptible object of the monarch’s pursuit, a “worthy object truly for an expedition of the king of Israel with his picked troops!” This insect is in Eastern language the popular emblem of insignificance. In 1 Sam. 26:20 the LXX. read “come out to seek my life” instead of “to seek a flea.”
Scripture references
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.