Fly
Animals in the Bible
The common housefly is a two-winged insect with large composite eyes. It feeds on a large variety of vegetable and protein matter and converges on food, rotting fruit or meat, dung, and household garbage. It is thus capable of carrying germs and viruses from various sources onto human food and may cause diseases related to food contamination.
Flies usually lay eggs on or near one of the sources of food; for example, rotting vegetation or protein such as meat, which is warm as the result of bacterial activity. The eggs hatch as small maggots, which feed on the rotting material. A few species of fly lay their eggs near sores on the skin of humans or animals, and the maggots feed on the flesh of the sores.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
זְבוּב zevuv · 6 verses
עָרֹב ‘arov · 7 verses
μυῖα muia · 1 verse
What it stands for
Flies were associated with decay and uncleanness.
More about it
Flies of many varieties are very common in Egypt and the Middle East. The Common Housefly Musca domestica is the variety found in almost every house and wherever cattle, sheep, or goats are kept.
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