flea

David at the cave of Adullam thus addressed his persecutor Saul (1 Samuel 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 a popular symbol of insignificance.

In 1 Samuel 26:20, the Septuagint reads “come out to seek my life,” instead of “to seek a flea.”