Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Heb. ‘akhbar, “swift digger”), properly the dormouse, the field-mouse (1 Sam. 6:4). In Lev. 11:29, Isa. 66:17 this word is used generically, and includes the jerboa (Mus jaculus), rat, hamster (Cricetus), which, though declared to be unclean animals, were eaten by the Arabs, and are still eaten by the Bedouins. It is said that no fewer than twenty-three species of this group (‘akhbar=Arab. ferah) of animals inhabit Palestine. God “laid
waste” the people of Ashdod by the terrible visitation of field-mice, which are like locusts in their destructive effects (1 Sam. 6:4, 11, 18). Herodotus, the Greek historian, accounts for the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35) by saying that in the night thousands of mice invaded the camp and gnawed through the bow-strings, quivers, and shields, and thus left the Assyrians helpless. (See SENNACHERIB.)
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(the corn-eater). The name of this animal occurs in (Leviticus 11:29; 1 Samuel 6:4,5; Isaiah 66:17) The Hebrew word is in all probability generic, and is not intended to denote any particular species of mouse. The original word denotes a field-ravager, and may therefore comprehend any destructive rodent. Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. It is probable that in (1 Samuel 6:5) the expression “the mice that mar the land”
includes and more particularly refers to the short-tailed field-mice (Arvicola agrestis, Flem.), which cause great destruction to the corn-lands of Syria.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
MOUSE (the corn-eater). Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. In Lev 11:29, and Isa 66:17 this word is doubtless used generically, including as unclean even the larger rat, jerboa, dormouse, and sandrat. Mice are often in the East nearly as destructive to the crops as locusts. They made great havoc in the fields of the Philistines after that people had taken the ark of the Lord. 1 Sam 6:4-5. In the twelfth century they
destroyed the young sprouts of grain in some parts of Syria for four successive years and came near to producing a general famine, and they abound in those regions at the present day. A modern traveller, in speaking of Hamath, says: "The western part of its territory is the granary of Northern Syria, though the harvest never yields more than ten for one, chiefly in consequence of the immense numbers of mice, which sometimes wholly destroy the
crops."
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
MOUSE (the corn-eater). Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. In Lev 11:29, and Isa 66:17 this word is doubtless used generically, including as unclean even the larger rat, jerboa, dormouse, and sandrat. Mice are often in the East nearly as destructive to the crops as locusts. They made great havoc in the fields of the Philistines after that people had taken the ark of the Lord. 1 Sam 6:4-5. In the twelfth century they
destroyed the young sprouts of grain in some parts of Syria for four successive years and came near to producing a general famine, and they abound in those regions at the present day. A modern traveller, in speaking of Hamath, says: "The western part of its territory is the granary of Northern Syria, though the harvest never yields more than ten for one, chiefly in consequence of the immense numbers of mice, which sometimes wholly destroy the
crops." MOWING means reaping with a sickle, for the heat dries up' the grass before it is high enough for the scythe. Ps 129:7.