How God Routed the Amorites With a Single Hornet

And sometimes it is by means of a hornet, as it is written (in Exodus 23:28): "And I will send the hornet before you." Our Rabbis said: When the Holy One, blessed be He, sent the hornet before Israel to slay the Amorites, see what is written concerning them (in Amos 2:9): "Yet I destroyed the Amorite [before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks, and so on]." It would enter into the right eye, and pour out its venom in it, and he would split open and fall down and die. For such is the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, to carry out His mission by means of slight things against all who exalt themselves over Him. He sends them a slight creature to exact punishment from them, in order to make known to them that their might is from none but Him. And in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to exact punishment from the star-worshiping nations by means of slight things, as it is said (in Isaiah 7:18-19): "And it shall come to pass on that day, that the Lord shall whistle for the fly that is at the end of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come and rest all of them, and so on."