Mouse: Heb. 'akhbar, "swift digger"), properly the dormouse, the field-mouse
(1 Samuel 6:4) In
(Leviticus 11:29; Isaiah 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 Samuel 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.
