leopard / cheetah

The Greek, Aramaic, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is translated as “leopard” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as milakulâĸ or “one with small spots.” “Milakulâĸ (modern milakulaaq), is derived from the base milak ‘spot, freckle’ followed by a nominalizing suffix with a diminutive sense. This choice provides readers with a vivid description of the animal in question, which would allow them to visualize its appearance even though it is not a feature of the local environment.’” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)

In passages where speed is in the focus (such as Habakkuk 1:8, the Kalanga translation uses “cheetah.” (Source: project-specific notes in Paratext)

 

Both leopards Panthera pardus and Cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus were fairly common in Israel until the twentieth century. Leopards lived both in the mountains and in the thick undergrowth found in many wadis and along the Jordan Valley. A very few still live in the Negev and in the wadis along the Dead Sea. Cheetahs lived in the semi-desert plains of Egypt the land of Israel Arabia and Syria. They were trained and used in hunting in both the Middle East and Egypt hundreds of years before Christ. They have now been hunted to extinction in these areas.

In the Old Testament it is likely that the one Hebrew word namer and the Aramaic word nemar were used for both animals. The Greek word pardalis means leopard.

Leopards are the most widely distributed of all the great cats. They are found throughout tropical mainland Asia and Africa. They are about 2 meters (6 feet) in length and are a yellowish brown color with black spots arranged in rosettes all over the body and tail. These spots make it very easy for a leopard to blend in with patches of shade and sunlight in or under bushes and trees. They are extremely agile, and this agility and their natural camouflage are used to the full in their hunting methods. They stalk gazelles, antelope, or deer (occasionally goats or sheep) until they are within ten or fifteen meters (30-50 feet) or less. They then break cover and leap onto their prey. They have a slightly different strategy when hunting monkeys and baboons. They drive them to the extreme ends of branches by climbing after them, and when the monkey or baboon finally drops from the tree, the leopard leaps after it and catches it on the ground.

Once a leopard has killed an animal, it carries it into a tree or onto a high rock to eat, possibly to get away from hyenas. Once a leopard has satisfied its appetite, if there is still meat left on the carcass, it will leave the carcass in the fork of a branch and return to feed again later. The exception to this is when a female has cubs. She will then carry the kill to her cubs in a lair under rocks or a log, but she will still carry any leftover meat into a tree to store in the branches. Unlike lions and cheetahs, leopards do not chase their prey over long distances.

Leopards live and hunt alone, coming together only at mating time. Cubs stay with their mothers only until they can hunt on their own; they are usually completely on their own by the time they are one year old. A female leopard with cubs is very protective and extremely dangerous.

Occasionally a leopard will be born completely black (the so-called black panther). This is simply an ordinary leopard with a slight genetic abnormality known as melanism.

Leopard in the Judean desert, Wikimedia Commons

Cheetahs or hunting leopards as they are sometimes called are also spotted but are slightly smaller and have longer legs than leopards. They also have a vertical stripe across each eye. Unlike most other members of the cat family cheetahs cannot retract their claws. They are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa but their numbers are greatly reduced now. A few remain in South Asia where they were once plentiful.

Cheetahs live in small family groups and hunt together. They are extremely fast and rely on this speed in their hunting. They live in open grassland on plains and apart from the grass and low bushes there is often not much cover for them to use in stalking. They stalk their prey to within about fifty meters (55 yards) and then break cover and with a tremendous turn of speed chase the prey and attempt to catch it by the throat.

Cheetah, Wikimedia Commons

Leopards are often paired with lions in the biblical text and are thus a symbol of violent danger. In Habakkuk 1:8, however, the namer is a symbol of speed. This would fit the cheetah rather than the leopard.

Where leopards are not known, the word for jaguar, bobcat, puma, mountain lion, or tiger can be used. Elsewhere, a borrowed word or a transliteration will need to be used, taking the Hebrew or the dominant local language as the basis.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also a leopard (cannot) change his spots.

jackal / fox

In biblical times and even today there are three species of fox found in Israel and one type of jackal. An additional type of fox was found in Egypt. In the Bible the Hebrew word shu‘al and its Greek equivalent alōpēx refer to any of these animals. These are members of the same animal family which includes the wolf and the dog. The word “jackal” was borrowed from the Arabic jakal which is from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew word shu‘al. In the days of the King James Version the word “jackal” had not yet been introduced into the English language and so in that version “fox” is used throughout for shu‘al.

Click or tap here for the rest of this entry in United Bible Societies’ All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible

Modern scholars are almost unanimous in agreeing that the word ’iyim (plural of ’iy) is derived from a root meaning “to howl” and that it refers to howling jackals in particular. The word usually occurs in conjunction with the word tsiyim (“hyenas”) which is derived from a root meaning “to wail”. The pair together could justifiably be interpreted as “wild animals wailing and howling.” This is usually taken to refer to hyenas and jackals.

The context will usually indicate which animal is being referred to in a particular passage. It is possible that the fox was known as the small shu‘al and the jackal as the large one.

In early Hebrew the plural form tanin from tan meant a type of snake. This usage is found in Exodus 7:9 et al. The same word was the name of a mythical monster or sea serpent. This usage occurs in Genesis 1:21 et al. However, it is well accepted now that, in later Hebrew, tan is a poetic name for the jackal. It derives from a stem meaning to recite, or lament. In the passages where snakes or the monster tanin is referred to the context usually indicates that it cannot refer to jackals.

Fox: All foxes look like small, long-haired dogs with pointed noses. The Red Fox Vulpes vulpes (also Vulpes flavescens) is now very common all over Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, China, Japan, North America, and Australasia, having been introduced into the latter two continents to be hunted on horseback with packs of dogs. The red fox is a smallish animal, about 1 meter (3 feet) from nose to tip of the tail. It is usually reddish with white underparts and a bushy tail. Red foxes feed mainly on mice and rats but also eat chickens, game birds, and fallen fruit. They may occasionally eat carrion (dead animals), but are not scavengers in the usual sense of the word.

The Desert Fox Vulpes ruppelli and the Egyptian Fox Vulpes nilotica are slightly smaller and yellowish brown, but they are otherwise very similar to the red fox. The Fennec Vulpes zerda is a very small fox with large ears. It is now found in the Middle East and Egypt and was probably found in Israel also in earlier times. It feeds on insects and mice.

Foxes live in pairs, singly or in small family groups when they have young. During the day they live in holes in the ground usually dug by some other animal and come out at night to feed. When chased by dogs they are very clever at escaping, often doubling back on their tracks and then jumping sideways and heading in a new direction, thus confusing the scent trail. They also run up streams and thus avoid laying a scent trail altogether.

Red fox, Wikimedia Commons

Jackal: The jackal found in Israel is the Golden or Oriental Jackal Canis aureus. It is also sometimes referred to as the Indian jackal. This animal is larger than the fox. It is yellowish brown with black tips to the long fur on its back.

Jackals eat almost anything and are great opportunists moving very fast with clever tactics when they have to. They have been known to steal bread from people’s houses and baby animals even from dangerous wild pigs. They are scavengers, eating household rubbish as well as carrion, especially the remains of carcasses killed by lions, but they also eat beetles and birds’ eggs and kill small mammals game birds and domestic chickens and ducks.

In some of the literature there is reference to the fact that jackals live in packs. This is not strictly correct. They live in pairs or small family groups but they may associate temporarily in larger groups when many pairs are attracted to the same burrows, carrion, refuse dumps, or potential prey. In these larger temporary groups they may cooperate and act together like a pack.

Jackals live in burrows made by other animals or in abandoned human houses or shelters and emerge to feed at night. They yap, howl, and wail at great length at the entrance to their burrow, especially on moonlit nights, with one pair triggering a response from neighboring pairs.

Both foxes and jackals are extremely intelligent animals, and their quick-witted, crafty opportunism is legendary in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The fables of Aesop, a North African philosopher and storyteller, which feature the crafty fox, date from about the time of Daniel. The fox also figures in Greek and Roman fables. Similar fables about opportunistic jackals have been widespread in Africa and the Middle East for centuries.

In ancient Arabic literature and in the Talmud and Midrash the word “lion” stands for a truly great and powerful person. In contrast “jackal” is used to designate an insignificant but self-important person. Since this figurative usage of “lion” (or “lioness”) is also common in the Bible there is a strong probability that the term “jackal” or “fox” used as a metaphor in the Bible for a person carries the connotation of self-important insignificance.

However the main symbolism associated with the jackal in the Bible is related to its habit of living among ruins and feeding on carcasses. To say that a certain place would become the dwelling place of jackals meant that the place would become deserted and lie in ruins, as the result of war. The jackal was thus a symbol of death and desolation as well as insignificance and opportunistic craftiness.

In areas where jackals are known, but not foxes, the word for jackal can be used for both. Similarly, if foxes are known but not jackals, the one word will suffice. In areas where neither foxes nor jackals are found, there may be related animals such as the Coyote Canis latrans or various types of wild dog or small wolf. In those few areas where even these are not found, one may use an expression such as “wild dog” or a transliteration.

Golden jackal, Wikimedia Commons

Isaiah 13:21f.: In this verse there are four words for howling wild animals that inhabit deserted buildings: tsiyim, ’ochim, ’iyim, tanim . All except tsiyim probably mean “jackal”; however, to maintain the parallelism of the Hebrew poem, it is better to translate both tsiyim and ’iyim as “hyenas”. These verses will then be translated as:
Wailing hyenas will settle there,
Howling jackals will fill their houses.

Hyenas will wail in their fortresses,
And jackals howl in their luxurious palaces.

The word ’ochim occurs only here in the Bible. It is derived from a Hebrew word meaning “to howl”. “Owls” is a possibility, but “jackals” fits the context better, as it then preserves the parallelism of “jackals” and “hyenas”.

Judges 15:4: Since jackals are easier to trap because they are more easily attracted to baits of meat, most modern translations interpret shu‘al as jackal in this passage.

Nehemiah 4:3: Since the fox is smaller and lighter than the jackal, fox is the preferred interpretation here. The meaning is thus something like “Even if a little fox were to climb on these walls they would collapse.” Where foxes or jackals are not known, an expression for a small dog could be used in this context.

Psalms 63:10: Since the reference is to the enemy soldiers dying in battle and becoming carrion (that is, lying unburied), the interpretation of shu‘al should be “jackals”.

Song of Songs 2:15: This verse is very difficult to interpret. While foxes may occasionally eat fallen grapes, or grapes low down on a vine, they cannot accurately be described as “ruiners of vineyards”. It seems more likely that what is in focus is the fact that for Israelites jackals symbolize ruin.

Jeremiah 51:34 : Although many English versions translate tan in this verse as “dragon” or “serpent”, it seems likely that “jackal” is better; jackals often swallow their food in a great hurry without chewing properly, and then vomit it later when they are under cover and eat it a second time more slowly.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See fox, fox (Herod), and jackal.

ibex / wild goat / mountain goat

The wild goat found in the land of Israel is the Nubian Ibex Capra ibex nubiana. It has existed in the mountains of this region from time immemorial and until fairly recently it was a very common animal. It was and to some degree still is found in the mountainous parts of Israel the Sinai Peninsula Arabia and Egypt. A closely related species Capra walie is found in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

However the ibex is the only type of wild goat now found in Israel. One other type once lived there but disappeared in the Stone Age long before the time of Abraham. Both ya‘el and ’aqo are the Hebrew names for this animal. Thus versions which include two types of wild goat in the list of clean animals in Deuteronomy 14:5 are probably not correct.

The Nubian ibex is a fairly large wild goat, with adults being about ninety centimeters (3 feet) high at the shoulder. It is a grayish color for most of the year but turns browner in winter. Males have thick long horns over 130 centimeters (4 feet) in length which curve backwards in a semicircle. The horns of the females are much slimmer and shorter, reaching a length of only about 40 centimeters (15 inches). Only the last few centimeters of the horns are smooth, the rest being ringed with ridges. These ibexes live in small herds in the mountains and prefer cliffs and crags, where they live off the bushes that grow on the ledges. Ibex meat is moister and more tender than that of gazelle or deer, and they have been a favorite game animal for many centuries.

The “Wild Goat Rocks” mentioned in 1 Samuel 24:2 is probably the rocky area around the pools and streams of Nahal Arugot near En Gedi. The area has been declared a nature reserve, and the ibexes and other indigenous animals are protected there. The name En Gedi itself, which means “Oasis of the Kid” or “Spring of the Kid”, probably refers to a young ibex.

The ibex is closely associated with remote high mountains and in both Hebrew and Arabic culture it became viewed as the most remote of all animals (compare Job 39:1). This is probably the reason why so many English translations render ya‘el as “mountain goat”. Although not referred to in the Bible ibexes are also known for their surefootedness on rocky ledges.

However to both of the above-mentioned cultures the female ibex was a symbol of grace and beauty grace being associated with the perfect balance with which ibexes stand walk and jump on the cliff faces and beauty probably being associated with their large human-like eyes. In English and many other cultures this poses a problem in Proverbs 5:19, because in these cultures goats are not positive symbols of beauty. In some Tibeto-Burman cultures the wild serow goat is viewed as the ugliest of all animals. In these languages to refer to a woman as a “wild goat” would be an insult. This is the reason why the English versions have “doe” rather than “wild goat”.

In sub-Saharan Africa there are no true wild goats. The closest equivalent animal is a small cliff-dwelling antelope, the Klipspringer Oreotragus oreotragus. The local name of this common, well-known animal has been used to translate ya‘el and ’aqo in many African translations.

In the remaining countries where no indigenous wild goats are found, or where specific words for such do not exist, a phrase equivalent to wild goat or wild mountain goat is usually used. The latter expression is probably the better choice, because in West Africa particularly bush goat is the word for the duiker, a small antelope not associated with mountains.

Proverbs 5:19: This verse occurs in the middle of a series of proverbs dealing with the value of sexual restraint and faithfulness within marriage. The writer/editor exhorts his readers to find sexual fulfillment with their wives alone. A wife is then referred to as “a lovable [or attractive] deer, a graceful ibex.”
As mentioned above in the Discussion: subsection of this section, there are many cultures in which to call a woman a “wild goat” would be an insult rather than a compliment. Where this is the case, a more suitable animal metaphor should be found which denotes gracefulness and can function as the parallel expression for “deer”.
Deuteronomy 14:4,5: The use of two words for wild goat in this list of clean animals should be avoided. However, it is advisable to translate ’aqo (that is, the seventh name in the list) as “ibex” or “wild goat.”

Nubian Ibex, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

hyrax

Coney: The seventeenth century English word “coney” was the common word at that time for the rabbit, “rabbit” being used at that time only for the baby rabbit. In later English, “rabbit” came to be used for the adults as well. “Coney” then dropped out of use except among fur traders. However it is certain that the Hebrew word shafan does not mean “rabbit” so the King James Version translation “coney” was incorrect. In the nineteenth century, Bible readers perhaps not being sure what a “coney” was, came to identify the “coney” with the Syrian hyrax, probably as the result of hearing preachers describe the animal. To these readers then “coney” acquired a new meaning that it had nowhere else. The use of “coney” is thus both archaic and incorrect.

Badger: Two types of badger live in the land of Israel. The more common is Meles meles and the second is the ratel or Honey Badger Mellivora capensis. The ratel eats anything from small mammals to lizards, insects, snails, fruit, honey and any dead animal or bird. But the animal referred to in Leviticus 11:5 and Deuteronomy 14:7 eats only vegetation and in Psalm 104:18 and Proverbs 30:26 it is associated with rocks as its natural habitat. Shafan therefore cannot be the badger or the ratel Thus those versions using “badger” are likewise incorrect.

Rock badger: Mystery surrounds the name “rock badger”. There was no known animal popularly called a “rock badger” prior to the release of the Brown, Driver, and Briggs translation of Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon in 1906. In this lexicon apparently for the first time, “rock badger” appears as the translation of the Hebrew shafan. It is unclear why they coined this new word in preference to the more common “rock rabbit”, but it was probably the result of translating the Cape Dutch klip dassie (“little rock badger”) too literally. However “rock badger” has been used by most English translators ever since. Both “coney” and “rock badger” are, however, not only basically meaningless to most readers but are also incorrect.

The animal referred to by the Hebrew word shafan is undoubtedly the Syrian Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis syriaca. This identification was first made by Canon Tristram in 1867 and has been confirmed many times since. It is a very common animal in the Middle East and Africa eats only vegetation and lives among the rocks.
In southern and eastern Africa other subspecies of the Hyrax Procavia capensis and the Yellow-spotted Hyrax Heterohyrax brucei are sometimes called “rock rabbit”, but are more usually called by the Afrikaans name “dassie”.

Hyraxes are found only in the Middle East and Africa. They are the size of small rabbits, but there the similarity ends. Hyraxes are unique in many ways. They have small round ears, no visible tail, and short legs. They look a bit like giant guinea pigs or cane rats, but they are not really rodents. They live mainly on leaves and herbs. The structure of their jaws, teeth, and feet and the size of their prehistoric ancestors link them to the rhinoceros and elephant.

Two of their top front teeth develop into small tusks which sometimes protrude from the side of their mouth. They have four toes on their front feet and three on the back feet. These toes do not have claws but each has a small hoof-like nail. The soles of their feet are perpetually clammy, being lubricated by a special gland. This enables them to run up almost vertical rock faces and climb trees with ease. In the middle of their back they have another large gland covered with an oval patch of hairs of a different color. These hairs can be raised as an alarm signal.

For such small mammals hyraxes have a very long gestation period of seven months. They live in fairly large family groups and since they are unable to regulate their body temperature by perspiring they huddle together in cavities under rocks when the weather is cold and lie stretched out in breezy locations in the shade of the rocks or trees when it is hot. They are thus only active and visible when the temperature is neither very hot nor cold.

They are quite vocal creatures, communicating by a variety of grunts, whistle-like alarm squeals, and territory-marking barks.

The Syrian rock hyrax is a fawny gray color with a yellowish back patch. Today they are easily seen in the wadis of the Judean Desert and in many parts of Galilee. They are also found in the Sinai, Arabian Peninsula, Syria and Lebanon.

In Leviticus 11:5 and Deuteronomy 14:7 hyraxes are said to “chew the cud”. This is not factually correct but they often look as if they are chewing endlessly. The reasons for them being declared “unclean” are strictly religious. As vegetation eaters they are no more a health hazard than for example goats or sheep. They actually spend a lot of time cleaning themselves.

Apart from being viewed as “unclean” animals there is one additional significance associated with the hyrax. Being virtually defenseless and easy prey for hawks, leopards, and human beings, the hyrax in Proverbs 30:26 symbolizes a combination of defenselessness and wisdom. It is defenseless but wise enough to seek the protection of the rocks which in turn are symbolic of the timeless protective stability of God.

Hyraxes are distributed over a wide area of eastern, western, central, and southern Africa. It is thus not usually difficult to find a word for hyrax in this region. In many eastern and southeastern Bantu languages the word for hyrax is mbira, mbila, mpila, or some similar derivative. It is usually classified in these languages as a type of rat.

Outside of the Middle East and Africa, however, it is difficult to find a word that will be both accurate and well known. Phrases such as “cliff rabbits” or “rock rabbits” are sometimes acceptable, but the best solution is probably to transliterate either the Hebrew word shafan or the scientific general name “hyrax”, and to include a fuller description in a footnote or in a glossary.

In the passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy the translator is obliged to translate the writer’s view that the hyrax is a cud-chewing animal, even though this may not be factually correct.

Hyrax, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also rock badger.

hyena

The word tsavu‘a occurs only twice in the Bible one of them being in the phrase ‘ayit tsavu‘a (Jeremiah 12:9). The word ‘ayit is usually taken to mean a screamer and in Genesis 15:11 it is obviously a bird hence the interpretation “bird of prey.” tsavu‘a is taken to mean “speckled blotched”. Thus the “speckled screamer” is taken by some scholars to mean “speckled bird of prey” and by others to mean “hyena.” However, there are also scholars who relate ‘ayit to a different Hebrew root that means “to attack greedily” and take ‘ayit to mean “prey” or even “carrion”. These latter scholars interpret ‘ayit tsavu‘a to mean “prey for hyenas” or “carrion for hyenas.” It is recommended that this exegesis be followed. Another possible rendering of the phrase could even be a place of scavenging hyenas.

There is considerable doubt about the meaning of the Hebrew word tsiyim and different translations have marmots, wild animals, wild cats, desert animals and even sharks and dolphins. It is clear that the word refers to a specific dangerous wild animal (possibly which lives in the desert) often associated with destruction and with jackals. Although not mentioned at all in the English versions there are many scholars zoologists among them who interpret this word as referring to the hyena.

The uncertainty surrounding the word relates to the fact that nobody is sure what other Hebrew words tsiyim is related to. Some relate it to a word for “desert”, thus “desert creature”. This interpretation does not exclude the hyena and in fact since the references seem to be to a specific animal rather than to desert animals in general the contexts would all fit “hyena” well. The trend among scholars today is to associate it with a word that disappeared early from Hebrew meaning “to wail or yelp”. The fairly obvious conclusion from this would be that the word means “the wailer”, that is the hyena.

The Striped Hyena Hyaena hyaena has been a very well-known and common animal in the Middle East since time immemorial. One would expect to find references to it in the Bible.

Hyenas emerge at night from holes and hollows under logs. They are best known as scavengers. They eat carcasses and bones of all kinds and forage in refuse dumps around cities, towns, and villages. However, they also hunt and are opportunistic, killing young goats, sheep, and baby gazelles. They often occupy abandoned houses or tombs.

Their weird calls at night vary from loud whoops and howls when they mark territory and contact family members to moans when they chase away rival scavengers and to yelps and wails when they are frightened away by humans or other predators.

The striped hyena is also found in northeast Africa the Arabian Peninsula and India. Like all hyena species it looks like a big dog with a large head. Its front legs are longer than its back legs and it has a stiff upright mane that stretches from between its ears all the way down its back to the end of its tail. It is a brownish gray color with dark indistinct stripes that become spots and blotches on its neck.

Since we cannot be one hundred percent sure that tsiyim refers to hyenas neither can we be sure of the connotations of the word. However from what is known about hyenas and their significance to other Semitic peoples we can draw some conclusions. As scavengers that eat carcasses hyenas thrive in times of famine or war. They are thus associated with both types of catastrophe. Their weird noises at night are often associated with demons and stories abound of ghosts that return in the form of hyenas. And finally probably because they are known to eat human corpses that have not been properly buried most people view them with repugnance. Anywhere in the Middle East to call someone a hyena is a terrible insult.

A different, but very similar species of hyena, the Spotted Hyena Crocuta crocuta, is found throughout eastern, central, and southern Africa. Another species, the Brown Hyena Hyaena brunnea, is found in southwestern Africa. In these areas, therefore, a word for hyena will be easy to find.

In areas where some kind of wild scavenging dog or wolf is known, the name for this animal can be used. Elsewhere one may use a phrase like “wild dog” or a transliteration and give a fuller description in the glossary or word list.

Striped Hyena, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

elephant

Although the first definite reference to elephants in the Bible is in the Greek deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees, ivory (literally “tooth”) is mentioned first in the time of Solomon. By this date there were already ivory trade routes from the Sudan down the Nile and by sea from where Djibouti is now on the African Red Sea coast to where Eilat is now on the Gulf of Aqaba. Some of the ivory may have been made from the teeth of the hippopotamus but two references, 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21, specifically refer to elephant ivory (literally “elephant’s tooth”). Ivory was probably known even much earlier than this since ornaments dating from around 2300 B.C. have been found in Palestine.

The Indian Elephant Elephas maximus was domesticated and trained for use in war very early well before the second millennium B.C. When Alexander the Great extended his empire into India in the fourth century B.C. he obtained war elephants to incorporate into his army. The idea of using elephants in war then spread to the Middle East. There was a smaller variety of this elephant found in Syria and Mesopotamia. By the third century B.C. domestic Indian elephants had been introduced into Egypt. Ptolemy II is reported to have had ninety-six elephants, four to a chariot, and later that same century when Ptolemy IV defeated the Seleucid king of Syria, Antiochus III, he is reported to have captured Syrians’ elephants. However, the Seleucid kings continued to use war elephants, and the next king, Epiphanes, attacked Egypt with elephants. He and his son then used them in their campaign against the Jews. According to 1Maccabees each elephant with thirty-two soldiers mounted on it, besides the Indian handler went into battle ahead of one thousand Syrian soldiers and five hundred horsemen. One of Maccabeus’ brothers was able to kill the largest elephant by getting under it and stabbing it, but he was himself killed when the elephant fell on him. At a later time probably because the Indian elephants were difficult to obtain the African Elephant Loxodonta africana was tamed for use in war. Coins show that the elephants used by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to cross the Alps were African probably brought from North Africa.

Elephas is the word most commonly used in the deuterocanonical books although elephantarchēs which means commander of an elephant squadron is used in 2 Maccabees 14:12 and 3 Maccabees 5:4 and 3 Maccabees 5:45 and thērion which means “monster” is used in 2 Maccabees 15:20f.

Elephants are the largest land animals on earth, the males of the Indian species being about 3 meters (10 feet) in height and weighing almost 4,000 kilograms (8,800 pounds). The African species is about half a meter (20 inches) higher and weighs up to 6,000 kilograms (13,200 pounds). The elephant’s trunk is basically an elongated nose, but it has muscles that make it a very useful feature. With it the elephant can not only smell but can pull down branches to eat, pick berries off bushes, draw up water to squirt into its mouth or over its body, and can use it as a weapon. On either side of the trunk the males grow long tusks that are often over 2 meters (6 feet) in length. These are used for digging up roots, gouging bark off trees, and lifting logs. These tusks are made of ivory. Elephants have large ears, which they use to fan themselves.

They are a dark gray color and have no fur. Their body looks almost hairless but in fact they are covered with bristly hairs. They feed on vegetation such as leaves roots shoots bark and fruit.

There are local words for elephant in most African, Middle Eastern, and Asian languages, and many international languages use a word derived from the Greek name elephas. In some areas even though there are no elephants, the fossilized bones of mammoths, the ancient relative of the elephant, are known, and this local name is used for modern elephants too. In most other areas the word for elephant is a word that is borrowed from the dominant language of the area.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

dugong

This animal is only mentioned in Scripture with regard to the leather made from its skin. It is clear that its hide made very good leather. The King James Version’s “badger” and Revised Standard Version’s “goat” are almost certainly mistranslations. New English Bible’s “porpoise” has more support since an Arabic word very similar to the Hebrew refers to the porpoise or dolphin. However catching sufficient porpoises to make a covering for the tabernacle would have been problematic for the Israelites since these animals live entirely in the sea while the Israelites were not a seagoing nation.

However, some local Bedouin tribes that live near the sea have for centuries made sandals and other articles from the skins of an animal called dugong and many modern scholars interpret tachash as referring to this animal. New International Version and New English Bible (margin) have “sea cow”. The dugong, which swims slowly and feeds on underwater weeds near the shore, is fairly easy to catch in nets.

The Dugong (Dugong dugong) is a large animal about 3 meters (10 feet) long, which lives in the sea, usually in small herds of twelve to fifteen animals. They swim slowly and feed in fairly shallow water on underwater weeds near mouths of rivers. They sometimes even move a short distance up the river. They need to come to the surface every few minutes to breathe, and they sometimes come out of the water to lie on rocks or sandbanks.

Although they have flippers rather than legs and a tail that looks like that of a large fish dugongs are mammals. They have soft fur. They do not lay eggs but give birth to babies and feed them on milk from their breasts. They are found in fairly large numbers even today in the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea and are also found along the tropical coasts of East Africa, South Asia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Solomon Islands. They have also been reported in Taiwan.

Dugongs are distantly related to seals. They are pale gray in color and the male has small tusks in its upper jaw. They are harmless and unsuspicious animals and are easy to catch. Dugong skins are fairly thick soft and long-wearing and make high quality leather. The fur is usually left on the leather.

Three very similar animals are the Senegal Manatee Trichechus senegalensis, which is found in West Africa, the Caribbean Manatee Trichechus manatus, which is found on the coasts and in the lagoons of the Caribbean islands and Florida, and the South American Manatee Trichechus inunguis, which is found in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

Where dugongs and manatees are known, the best choice will be the word for one of the three mentioned in the previous paragraph. In areas where they are not known, the word for the seal can be used. Where seals are also not known, a more general expression such as “good soft leather” or “furs” is better than trying to name the animal. It is the skin rather than the animal that is in focus in all cases.

Dugong, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also fine leather.

dog

Dogs were domesticated very early and were used for hunting and as watchdogs in the ancient world. In Egypt as early as 4000 B.C. people made pottery images that indicate that sleek fast hunting dogs were bred which looked like the modern greyhound. From Babylonian sculpture we know that around 2500 B.C. large hunting dogs that looked like the modern bull-mastiff were kept by people in the Mesopotamian civilizations.

Among the Jews however while dogs were kept mainly as watch-dogs they were held in contempt and left to feed themselves by scavenging. This habit of scavenging and the fact that dogs were possibly associated with some Egyptian gods meant that dogs were seen as very unclean animals by the Jews. The dog found in Jewish settlements in Bible times was probably the pariah dog Canis familiaris putiatini which looked something like a small light brown Alsatian or German shepherd. This type of dog in its wild and domesticated forms is found all over the Middle East and on the mainland coasts of South and Southeast Asia (where it is known as the crab-eating dog). The Australian dingo is also very similar.

Small pet dogs were kept in homes in the Greek and Roman civilizations by gentiles but not by Jews. This is probably the type of dog referred to by the Greek word kunarion in Matthew 15:26 and Mark 7:27.

[Sarah Ruden (2021, p. 27), who translates kunarion as “little doggy,” says the following: “In the entire Greek Bible, only [these two passages] use this diminutive (kunarion) of the word for ‘dog,’ a rare and largely comical word. This word choice weakens the usual sense of dogs as dirty and uncivilized and excluded from the home, much less from the table that symbolized God’s providential bounty.”]

As mentioned above dogs were held in contempt as unclean. To call someone a dog was therefore very derogatory and to refer to someone as a “dead dog” was even more so. Israelites viewed dogs as second only to pigs as unclean animals. Dogs as scavengers around the villages ate anything from household refuse to animal carcasses and human excreta. They even ate human corpses that lay unburied after battles. Furthermore the dog was possibly one of the symbols of the Egyptian god Anubis (although many modern scholars believe the symbol to be the jackal).

With all of the above in mind it is understandable that dying and then being eaten by unclean dogs was seen as the worst of all possible fates.

In the first century A.D. gentiles were considered to be unclean and were referred to by Jews in a derogatory way as “dogs.” There is therefore strong irony in the expression in Philippians 3:2 where Judaizing Christians are referred to as dogs.

One additional connotation associated with dogs in the Bible is sexual perversion and promiscuity a connotation probably arising from the fact that sexually aroused male dogs do not always differentiate between sexes as they seek to mate and the fact that dogs of both sexes mate repeatedly with different partners.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)