Prey
King James Dictionary [1]
PREY, n. L. proeda.
1. Spoil booty plunder goods taken by force from an enemy in war.
And they brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses and Eleazar the priest. Numbers 31
In this passage,the captives are distinguished from prey. But sometimes persons are included.
They Judah shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies. 2 Kings 21 .
2. That which is seized or may be seized by violence to be devoured ravine. The eagle and the hawk dart upon their prey.
She sees herself the monster's prey.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey. Job 4
3. Ravage depredation.
Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, lion in prey.
Animal or beast of prey, is a carnivorous animal one that feeds on the flesh of other animals. The word is applied to the larger animals, as lions, tigers, hawks, vultures, &c. rather than to insects yet an insect feeding on other insects may be called an animal of prey.
PREY, To prey on or upon, is to rob to plunder to pillage.
1. To feed by violence, or to seize and devour. The wolf preys on sheep the hawk preys on chickens. 2. To corrode to waste gradually to cause to pine away. Grief preys on the body and spirits envy and jealousy prey on the health.
Language is too faint to show
His rage of love it preys upon his life
He pines, he sickens, he despairs, he dies.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( n.) The act of devouring other creatures; ravage.
(2): ( n.) That which is or may be seized by animals or birds to be devoured; hence, a person given up as a victim.
(3): ( n.) Anything, as goods, etc., taken or got by violence; anything taken by force from an enemy in war; spoil; booty; plunder.
(4): ( n.) To take booty; to gather spoil; to ravage; to take food by violence.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
prā ( בּז , baz , טרף , ṭereph , שלל , shālāl ): "Prey" is frequent in the Old Testament, chiefly as the translation of baz , "spoil," "plunder" ( Numbers 14:3 , Numbers 14:11; Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 10:6 , etc.); of ṭereph , "prey of wild beasts," "torn thing" ( Genesis 49:9; Numbers 23:24; Job 4:11 , etc.); of malḳōah , "a taking" ( Numbers 31:11 , etc.; Isaiah 49:24 , Isaiah 49:25 ); of shālāl , "spoil" or "booty" ( Judges 5:30 twice; Judges 8:24 , Judges 8:25; Isaiah 10:2 , etc.). Mahēr - shālāl - ḥash - baz (the Revised Version margin "The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth") was the symbolical name given to a son of Isaiah ( Isaiah 8:1 , Isaiah 8:3 ). "Prey" does not occur in the New Testament, but is found in the Apoc: 1 Esdras 8:77, "for our sins ... were given up ... for a prey" ( pronomḗ ); Judith 9:4; 16:5; 1 Macc 7:47; Ecclesiasticus 27:10 ( thḗra ); Judith 5:24 ( katábrōma ).
In the Revised Version (British and American) shālāl is generally translated "spoil" ( Judges 5:30; Judges 8:24 , Judges 8:25; Isaiah 10:2 , etc.), while, conversely, "prey" (noun and verb) is occasionally substituted for "spoil," "booty" ( Numbers 31:32 , ere). See Booty; Spoil .
