David at the cave of Adullam thus addressed his persecutor Saul (1 Sam. 24:14): “After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea?” He thus speaks of himself as the poor, contemptible object of the monarch’s pursuit, a “worthy object truly for an expedition of the king of Israel with his picked troops!” This insect is in Eastern language the popular emblem of insignificance. In 1 Sam. 26:20 the LXX. read “come out to seek my life” instead of “to seek a flea.”

an insect but twice mentioned in Scripture, viz., in (1 Samuel 24:14; 26:20) Fleas are abundant in the East, and afford the subject of many proverbial expressions.