Deuteronomy 7:20

20 Moreover, the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, shall be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 7:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 7:20

Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them,
&c.] Not a single one, but several of them, and which may be understood of creatures so called, which resemble wasps, only twice as large, an insect very bold and venomous; see ( Exodus 23:28 ) . Aben Ezra interprets it of the leprosy:

until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed;
such of the Canaanites who escaped the sword of the Israelites, and hid themselves in holes and caverns of the earth; these the hornets would find out and sting them to death, until they were all destroyed. Thus God can make use of small creatures, even insects, to destroy nations the most populous and mighty.

Deuteronomy 7:20 In-Context

18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: [but] shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;

19 The great temptations which thy eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the out-stretched arm, by which the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do to all the people of whom thou art afraid.

20 Moreover, the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, shall be destroyed.

21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God [is] among you, a mighty God and terrible.

22 And the LORD thy God will drive out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.