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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Scorpion
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'akrab. Of the class Arachnida and order Pulmonaria. Common in the Sinai wilderness, typifying Satan and his malicious agents against the Lord's people (; ; ). Rolling itself together it might be mistaken for an egg (). Found in dry dark places amidst ruins, in hot climates. Carnivorous, breathing like spiders by lung-sacs, moving with uplifted tail.
The sting at the tail's end has at its base a gland which discharges poison into the wound from two openings. In ; , "the scorpions of the earth" stand in Contrast to the "locusts" from hell, not earth. The "five months" are thought to refer to the 150 prophetical days, i.e. years, from A.D. 612, when Mahomet opened his mission, to 762, when the caliphate was moved to Bagdad. In scorpions mean "scourges armed with iron points". The sting of the common scorpion is not very severe, except that of Buthus occitanus.