Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Sheep
Subjects in this Topic:
SHEEP.—
1. tsôn, ‘small cattle,’ such as sheep and goats, Gen_4:2 etc.; a single sheep or goat, Exo_22:1. 2. seh, Deu_14:4 etc., a sheep or goat; collectively, like 1, in Isa_7:25 etc. 3. ’ayil, Gen_15:9 ‘ram.’ 4. râchçl, Gen_31:38; Gen_32:14, Son_6:6 etc., ‘ewe.’ See prop. name Rachel. 5. kar, Deu_32:14 etc., ‘young lamb.’ 6. kebes, Num_7:15, Isa_5:17, and keseb, Lev_3:7, a lamb from one to three years old; the lamb of sacrifice. 7. taleh (Arab. [Note: Arabic.] tully), 1Sa_7:9, Isa_40:11; Isa_65:25, a lamb, older than the preceding. 8. ’immar (Aram [Note: ram Aramaic.] . [Note: Aramaic.] ), Ezr_6:9 ‘lamb.’ 9. In Gen_33:19 AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] has ‘lambs’ as tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of qĕsîtâh. See Kesitah. 10. (Gr.) amnos, Joh_1:29 etc., ‘lamb.’ 11. arçn, Luk_10:3 etc., ‘lamb.’ 12. arnion Rev_5:6 etc., the equivalent of Heb. keseb. 13. Probaton, Joh_10:1-4 etc., a general term like Nos. 1 and 2.
The common sheep of Palestine is the fat-tailed sheep (Ovis aries, var. laticaudata). The mass of tail-fat is sometimes enormous; it is the ‘whole rump’ (Heb. and Arab. [Note: Arabic.] ’alyâh) of Exo_29:22, Lev_3:9 etc. Sheep are usually pastured with goats except when the land is too rocky and harren for the former. The flock is led by the shepherd, though the shepherd’s boy may bring up the rear; on a journey a shepherd of experience must drive the flock (Gen_33:13), while another leads. When away from villages, the sheep are herded at night in folds, which are roughly made enclosures of piled-up stones; the shepherd lives in a cave or hut adjoining, and is in very intimate touch with his sheep, each of which he knows unfailingly at a glance. The skin of a sheep, roughly tanned with all the wool on, is the common wioter jacket (furweh) of a shepherd or peasant. To kill a sheep or lamh for a stranger’s meal is one of the first acts of Bedouin hospitality. In the country, sheep are killed only in such circumstances or in honour of some festive occasion (cf. 1Sa_25:18, 1Ki_1:19).
E. W. G. Masterman.