Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.Wood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
There are at least two species of Hedgehog known in Palestine, that of
the north being identical with our own well-known animal (_Erinaceus
Europoeus_), and the other being a distinct species (_Erinaceus
Syriacus_). The latter animal is the species which has been chosen for
illustration. It is smaller than its northern relative, lighter in
colour, and, as may be seen from the illustration, is rather different
in general aspect.
Its habits are identical with those of the European Hedgehog. Like
that animal it is carnivorous, feeding on worms, snails, frogs,
lizards, snakes, and similar creatures, and occasionally devouring the
eggs and young of birds that make their nest on the ground.
Small as is the Hedgehog, it can devour all such animals with perfect
ease, its jaws and teeth being much stronger than might be anticipated
from the size of their owner.
One or two objections that have been made to the translation of the
Kippôd as Hedgehog must be mentioned, so that the reader may see what
is said on both sides in dubious cases. One objection is, that the
Kippôd is (in Isaiah xiv. 23) mentioned in connexion with pools of
water, and that, as the Hedgehog prefers dry places to wet, whereas
the Bittern is essentially a marsh-dweller, the latter rendering of
the word is preferable to the former. Again, as the Kippôd is said by
Zephaniah to "lodge in the upper lintels," and its "voice to sing in
the windows," it must be a bird, and not a quadruped. We will examine
these passages separately, and see how they bear upon the subject. As
to Zephaniah ii. 13, the Jewish Bible treats the passage as
follows:--"And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and
destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and arid like the
desert. And droves shall crouch in the midst of her, all the animals
of nations: both pelican and hedgehog (Kippôd) shall lodge nightly in
the knobs of it, a voice shall sing in the windows; drought shall be
in the thresholds, for he shall uncover the cedar-work."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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