Bee
Animals in the Bible
The bee is a flying insect that collects nectar from flowers and converts it into honey. It lives in swarms made up of many thousands of bees. They make a hive in a hollow log, in spaces between rocks, in holes in the ground, in old termite nests, or other places. There the bees build combs made of wax. In the comb are small cells, and in the cells nearest the center of the hive the queen bee lays eggs, and young are raised, while the honey is stored in cells toward the outside. Bees are able to sting and do so when they feel that their hive is threatened. The smell of one bee’s sting makes the other bees in the hive aggressive.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
דְּבוֹרָה devorah · 4 verses
μέλισσα melissa · 2 verses
More about it
The species of bee found in Israel in biblical times was obviously a fierce strain, since most of the references are to it swarming around and attacking people. In fact it is likely that all bees were originally much fiercer than the fairly docile bees commonly kept in hives today (the result of breeding from selected queen bees). Most biblical references are to “wild bees", that is, bees in natural hives rather than in hives made by man. However, it is likely that bees were also kept in apiaries, since we know that the practice was common in Egypt, Greece, and Rome from very early times.
The Hebrew word for “honey", devash, is also used for syrup extracted from figs, dates, and grapes, or from certain types of palm tree. The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” refers to a land that is fertile and thus rich in pasture, fruit, and the grain and flowers from which bees make honey.
Also in Insects, spiders, and worms
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema