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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Leopard
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Famed for swiftness and agility (); "you would fancy it was flying" (Oppian Cyneg., iii. 76); it climbs trees, and can crawl along the ground. Hence the symbol for Greece and Alexander's rapid victories (; ). The prevalence of leopards anciently in Palestine is marked by the many places named from them (namer, Hebrew): Nimrah, Nimrim, Beth Nimrah. "The mountains of the leopard" (), namely, Lebanon and Hermon, where still they are found; "the mountains of prey" (), symbolizing the rapacious world kingdoms. They spring with successive rapid bounds. They cunningly lie in wait in thickets and often near villages for their prey, as distinguished from the lion's bold, open attack (; ): "as a leopard by the way, I will observe (lie in wait for) them." Its unalterable spots represent man's inability to change himself (); yet the leopard in the millennium shall "lie down with the kid" ().