צָרְעָה Hornet
Every verse in which this word stands — 3 places, in canonical order, first appearance to last. These are the places the lexicon carries under this word's own entry, counting every form the text writes it in, which is the number on the list.
The tzir'ah sent before Israel to drive out the nations — thrice promised and once recalled. The plain sense is the hornet; some of the tradition reads a plague rather than the insect, and the discussion is old.
וְשָׁלַחְתִּי אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְגֵרְשָׁה אֶת־הַחִוִּי אֶת־הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי וְאֶת־הַחִתִּי מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ
And I will send the hornet before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
וְגַם אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה יְשַׁלַּח יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּם עַד־אֲבֹד הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִים מִפָּנֶֽיךָ
Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and they that hide themselves, perish from before thee. .
וָאֶשְׁלַח לִפְנֵיכֶם אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה וַתְּגָרֶשׁ אוֹתָם מִפְּנֵיכֶם שְׁנֵי מַלְכֵי הָאֱמֹרִי לֹא בְחַרְבְּךָ וְלֹא בְקַשְׁתֶּֽךָ
And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
Every Hebrew word for “hornet”, with its gematria →
Quick answers
What is the Hebrew word for hornet?
Hornet in Hebrew is צרעה, with a gematria of 365 in the standard method.
How many times is the hornet mentioned in the Tanakh?
The word stands 3 times in the Tanakh, first at Exodus 23:28.
A spelling is not a word. The bare letters צרעה stand 5 times in the corpus, which is a different question and often a different number: the same letters can spell a name or another word entirely, and the creature written with a particle attached is a spelling that search never returns. It is here, as itself.
See all 5 occurrences of the spelling צרעה →