Category Archives: Animals

Bird

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* Bird. — No other classification of birds than into clean and unclean is given. The Jews, before the Babylonian captivity, had no domestic fowls except pigeons . Although many birds are mentioned, there occur few allusions to their habits. Their instinct of migration, the snaring or netting them, and the caging of song birds are referred to.

* Bird, Dyed. — So does the English version, Jer. 12:9, wrongly interpret the Hebrew ‘áyit. which means beast of prey, sometimes also bird of prey.

* Bird, Singing. — This singing bird of Soph., ii, 14, according to the D.V., owes its origin to a mistranslation of the original, which most probably should be read: “And their voice shall sing at the window”; unless by a mistake of some scribe, the word qôl, voice, has been substituted for the name of some particular bird.

* Birds, Speckled, Hebrew çãbhûá’ (Jeremiah 12:9). A much discussed translation. The interpretation of the English versions, however meaningless it may seem to some, is supported by the Targum, the Syriac, and St. Jerome. In spite of these authorities many modern scholars prefer to use the word hyena, given by the Septuagint and confirmed by Ecclesiasticus, xiii, 22 as well as by the Arabic (dábúh) and rabbinical Hebrew (çebhôá’), names of the hyena.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_animals_in_the_Bible]

Bat

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A bat is a four footed beast of the ravenous sort. Each foot has five toes, and the forefeet are connected with a membrane, and expand into a sort of wing. Its mouth is like that of quadruped, not like a bird, and it is covered with hair. It gives birth to live young, not eggs, and resembles greatly a mouse. The female gives milk to its young, and these young cling to her chest. During winter bats cover themselves with their wings and hang in dry, dark places. In summer they do likewise in the day, and they hunt for food at night catching moths and insects. They cannot be tamed.

The largest bats are in Brazil, Madagascar, and Maldives, and will suck the blood of people who sleep with their skin revealed, and leave them bleeding to death.

Imagery of Bats. Bats are unclean under the law, and they represent people who are fearful, unbelieving, ignorant, and hypocritically wicked. They delight in old ruinous houses Isa 2:20.

Some take the Hebrew Hatalaph (swallow) in Lev 11:19; Deu 14:19 for a bat.

Source: [DCox] Continue reading →

Wasp

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Wasp.

These overgrown relatives of bees are known for their painful sting. Wasps are common throughout the Holy Land. Hornets are a large species of wasp. So savage were these insects when disturbed that Egyptian soldiers used hornets as a symbol of their military might. When the people of Israel were marching toward the Promised Land, God promised He would send hornets before them to drive the Canaanites out of the land (Ex. 23:28). Ancient writers claim that entire tribes were sometimes driven out of a country by wasps or hornets.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Spider

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Spider.

Hundreds of different species of spiders are found in the Holy Land. A spider’s skill at spinning threads into a web is one of nature’s miracles. The fragile web of a spider is used to demonstrate the folly of placing confidence in something other than the stable, dependable God (Job 8:14).

Spiders trap their victims in their webs and dissolve them with pre-digestive juices so they can be eaten. Oil on the spider’s body keeps it from being entangled in its own web.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Snail

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Snail.

These are small, slow-crawling animals with a soft body protected by a coiled shell. They move with wave-like motions of their single foot, secreting a slime as they go to make their travel easier. The psalmist may have had this peculiar motion in mind when he spoke of the snail “which melts away as it goes” (Ps. 58:8).

The snail_ in (Leviticus 11:30) (KJV ) is probably a skink, a type of sand lizard.

Source: [Anon-Animals] Continue reading →

Flea

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Flea.

Fleas flourished in the sand and dust of the Holy Land. Classified as parasites, these tiny insects attach themselves to a body and suck blood from their host. Fleas have no wings, but they do have strong legs and can jump several inches at one leap. The flea that lives on man is tiny, but it can be very irritating. David described himself as a mere flea being pursued by a king (1 Sam. 24:14; 26:20). He may have seemed insignificant, but he irritated King Saul.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Blast

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Blast certainly, designates, Deut. 28:42, a voracious insect; the Hebrew çelãçál, “chirping”, suggests that the cricket was possibly meant and might be substituted for blast. In Ps. 127:46 (Hebr., Psa 128:46), blast stands for hãsîl, “the destroyer”, perhaps the locust in its caterpillar state, in which it is most destructive.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_animals_in_the_Bible]

Beetle

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Beetle.

Beetles fly, but they do not leap (Lev. 11:21).
Crickets, which are related to locusts, both fly and leap. Some scholars contend that katydid, or locusts, are more likely the correct translations of this one biblical reference to beetles or crickets.

Source: [Anon-Animals]

Beetle

given by A.V. (Leviticus 11:22) as an equivalent for Hebrew, árbéh, does not meet the requirements of the context: “Hath the legs behind longer wherewith it hoppeth upon the earth”, any more than the bruchus of D.V., some species of locust, the locusta migratoria being very likely intended.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_animals_in_the_Bible]

Ant

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Bible occurrences: Pro 6:6; 30:25.

The notable character of the ant is its prudent habit of providing for the future, and their ceaseless hard work.

Source: [DCox]

Ant. Approximately 100 species of ants live in the Holy Land. Harvester ants are the ones meant in (Proverbs 6:6-8) and (30:25). These tiny insects settle near grain fields, carrying seed after seed into their private storehouses. In cold weather these ants cluster together and hibernate. When winter comes, they have food stored up until the next harvest.
God has provided ants with such amazing instincts that they appear to reason and plan ahead. If stored grain gets wet, they haul it out into the sun to dry. Their hard work was considered a worthy example for human beings by the writer of Proverbs (Prov. 6:6-8; 30:25).

The Ant

If you look at the sixth verse of the sixth chapter of Proverbs, you will read, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” A sluggard, you know, is a man, or woman, or child, who does not love to read or to do any kind of work, but likes to sleep or be idle all the day long. Do you think you were ever acquainted with one?

Now see what the Bible tells the sluggard to do. It bids him go to the little ant, and “consider her ways,” that is, look on and see what she does. Have you ever watched the ants when they were busy at work? It will give you very pleasant employment for half an hour on a summer’s day. In some places you may see small ant-hills scattered about, so close together that you can hardly step without treading on them; and you may find other places where there are not so many, but where the hills are much larger. I have seen them so large that you could hardly step over one of them without touching it with your foot and breaking some part of it. And then how busy the little creatures are! Just kneel down on the grass beside them, and notice how they work! You will see one little fellow creeping along as fast as he can go, with a grain of sand in his mouth, perhaps as large as his head. He does not stop to rest, but when he has carried his grain to help build the hill, away he goes for another. You may watch them all day and never see them idle at all.

You see why God tells the sluggard to go and look at the little ants: it is that when he sees them so busy, he may be ashamed of himself for being idle, and learn to be “wise,” or diligent in whatever he undertakes. I should not think he could help going to work, after he had looked at them a little while. The ants seem to be very happy, and I think it is because they are so busy. God has put nobody in this world to be idle: even children have something to do. The inside of an ant-hill is very curious, but it is not easy to examine it without destroying all the work that the little insects have taken so much pains to finish. There is a kind of ant in warm climates that builds for itself hills as high as a man. They are not made of sand, but of a kind of clay; and have a great many cells or apartments, and many winding passages leading from one part to another. All this is done, as the Bible says, without “guide, overseer or ruler;” that is, they have no one to direct them how to do it. God gives them skill just as he does to the honey-bees in building the beautiful cells which you have so often admired; all His works are wonderful.