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Difference between revisions of "Unicorn"
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== Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_37894" /> == | == Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_37894" /> == | ||
<p> | <p> '''''Reem''''' . In Deuteronomy 33:17, "his (Joseph's) horns are like the horns of an unicorn" (so margin rightly, not "unicorns"); "the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh," two tribes sprung from the one Joseph, are the two horns from one head. Therefore the unicorn was not as is represented a one-horned animal, but some species of urns or wild ox. The rhinoceros does not "skip" as the young unicorn is represented to do ( Psalms 29:6). The unicorn's characteristics are: </p> <p> '''(1)''' great strength, Numbers 23:22; Job 39:11; </p> <p> '''(2)''' two horns, Deuteronomy 33:17; </p> <p> '''(3)''' fierceness, Psalms 22:21; </p> <p> '''(4)''' untameableness, Job 39:9-11, where the unicorn, probably the wild bison, buffalo, ox, or urus (now only found in Lithuania, but then spread over northern temperate climes, Bashan, etc., and in the Hercynian forest, described by Caesar as almost the size of an elephant, fierce, sparing neither man nor beast) stands in contrast to the tame ox used in plowing, Job 39:11-12; </p> <p> '''(5)''' playfulness of its young, Psalms 29:6; </p> <p> '''(6)''' association with "bullocks and bulls" for sacrifice, Isaiah 34:6-7; </p> <p> '''(7)''' lifting up the horn, Psalms 92:10, as bovine animals lower the head and toss up the horn. </p> | ||
== American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_17448" /> == | == American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_17448" /> == | ||
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== People's Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_70907" /> == | == People's Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_70907" /> == | ||
<p> '''Unicorn,''' ''Reêm,'' or ''High.'' Numbers 23:22, A. V., but R. V. reads "wild ox." The word occurs seven times in the Old Testament. That fabulous creature the unicorn certainly is not meant by the Hebrew ''Reêm'' . Critics are agreed that the passages mentioning it, correctly understood, require an animal with two horns. This animal was distinguished for his ferocity, Isaiah 34:7, strength, Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8, agility, Psalms 29:6, wildness, Job 39:9, as well as for being horned, and destroying with his horns. Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21. For various reasons this animal could not have been the rhinoceros. Probably it was the now extinct aurochs (''Bos Primigenius'' ), a long-horned and powerful ox, which existed in the forests of Europe nearly, or quite, until the Middle Ages. An allied species of great size and strength is known to have existed in Palestine, as the bison (''Bison Bonasus'' ), and some or these, now called aurochs, are still found in the forests of Lithuania. </p> | <p> '''Unicorn,''' ''Reêm,'' or ''High.'' Numbers 23:22, A. V., but R. V. reads "wild ox." The word occurs seven times in the Old Testament. That fabulous creature the unicorn certainly is not meant by the Hebrew ''Reêm'' . Critics are agreed that the passages mentioning it, correctly understood, require an animal with two horns. This animal was distinguished for his ferocity, Isaiah 34:7, strength, Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8, agility, Psalms 29:6, wildness, Job 39:9, as well as for being horned, and destroying with his horns. Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21. For various reasons this animal could not have been the rhinoceros. Probably it was the now extinct aurochs ( ''Bos Primigenius'' ), a long-horned and powerful ox, which existed in the forests of Europe nearly, or quite, until the Middle Ages. An allied species of great size and strength is known to have existed in Palestine, as the bison ( ''Bison Bonasus'' ), and some or these, now called aurochs, are still found in the forests of Lithuania. </p> | ||
== Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_54621" /> == | == Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_54621" /> == | ||
