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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Ox, Oxen, Herd, Cattle
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OX, OXEN, HERD, CATTLE
1. shôr, Gen_32:5, 1Sa_22:19 etc.; Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] tor (cf. Arab-thaur) is used in Ezr_6:8; Ezr_6:17; Ezr_7:17 and Dan_4:25; Dan_4:32-33; shôr is used collectively and also for a single member of the bovine species of any age and either sex.
2. ’ãl âphîm (only in pl.); a general term for ‘oxen,’ Deu_7:13; Deu_28:4; Deu_28:18; Deu_28:51, Psa_8:7, Pro_14:4, Isa_30:24.
3. par ‘young hull,’ ‘bullock’; and pârâh ‘young cow.’ See Heifer.
4. ’abbîr (in plur.) ‘bulls’ in Psa_22:12; Psa_50:13, Isa_34:7; but ‘strong ones’ or ‘horses’ elsewhere.
5. teô, Deu_14:5 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘wild ox,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘antelope’; tô. Isa_51:20 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘wild bull,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘antelope.’
6. ’çdher herd; in Joe_1:18 conjoined with bâqâr = herds of oxen; and in same versa with tsôn = herds (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘flocks’) of small cattle (sheep and goats).
7. migneh usually tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘cattle’; in Gen_47:17 conjoined with bâgâr = ‘herds’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘cattle of the herds’.
8. bìhìmah ‘cattle’; in Gen_47:18 conjoined with migneh = ‘herds of cattle.’
Oxen are specially valuable in Palestine for ploughing (Deu_22:19, 1Ki_19:19) and for threshing, i.e. ‘treading out the corn’ (Deu_25:4, Hos_10:11). They were used for carts (Num_7:3); the Circassians, recently settled in Palestine, use them extensively in this way, but not the fellahîn. In 1Ch_12:40 oxen are also mentioned as burden-bearers. Their use for sacrifice is repeatedly referred to (see 1Ki_8:53, 2Ch_29:33). The cattle of Palestine are small and mostly lean, owing to poor food and much work. They are most plentiful in Galilee, where the pasturage is better; and a much larger breed, the cows of which give excellent milk, flourishes around Damascus. In several parts of the Jordan Valley, notably in el-Batiha, N. of Lake of Tiberias, and near Lake Huleh, the buffalo or jamus (Bosbubalus) is kept by the Bedouin; it yields excellent milk.
For the ‘wild ox’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of rì’ çm), see Unicorn.
E. W. G. Masterman.