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UNICORN (re’çm, Num_23:22 etc.; rçm, Job_39:9; RV [Note: Revised Version.] in all passages ‘wild ox’).—This is undoubtedly the rîmu of the Assyrians, often figured on their sculptures. A fine bas-relief of this animal was uncovered recently by the excavations of Nineveh. It is probably identical with the aurochs or Bos primigenius, the urus of Julius Cæsar. It was of great size and strength (Num_23:22; Num_24:8, Psa_22:21), very wild and ferocious (Job_39:9-12), and specially dangerous when hunted, because of its powerful double horns (Psa_92:10, Deu_33:17). In connexion with Isa_34:7 it is interesting to note the inscription of Shalmaneser II., who says, ‘His land I trod down like a rîmu.’ The Arab. [Note: Arabic.] ri’m, the graceful Antilope leucoryx of Arabia, is a very different animal.
E. W. G. Masterman.