Goat

VIEW:33 DATA:01-04-2020
GOAT.—(1) ‘çz, used generically, both sexes, Gen_30:35, Exo_12:5, Ezr_6:17 etc. (2) tsâphîr (root ‘to leap’), ‘he-goat,’ 2Ch_29:21, Ezr_8:35, Dan_8:5; Dan_8:8. (3) sâ‘îr (root ‘hairy’), usually a he-goat, e.g. Dan_8:21 ‘rough goat’; se‘îrah, Lev_5:6 ‘she-goat’; se‘îrîm, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘devils’ 2Ch_11:15, ‘satyrs’ Isa_13:21; Isa_34:14. See Satyr. (4) ‘attûd, only in pl. ‘attûdîm, ‘he-goats’ Gen_31:10; Gen_31:12, AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘chief ones’ Isa_14:8, but RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘he-goats.’ (5) tayîsh, ‘he-goat,’ Pro_30:31 etc. In NT eriphos, eriphion, Mat_25:32-33; tragos, Heb_9:12-13; Heb_9:19; Heb_10:4. Goats are among the most valued possessions of the people of Palestine. Nabal had a thousand goats (1Sa_25:2; see also Gen_30:33; Gen_30:35; Gen_32:14 etc.). They are led to pasture with the sheep, but are from time to time separated from them for milking, herding, and even feeding (Mat_25:32). Goats thrive on extraordinarily bare pasturage, but they do immeasurable destruction to young trees and shrubs, and are responsible for much of the barrenness of the hills. Goats supply most of the milk used in Palestine (Pro_27:27); they are also killed for food, especially the young kids (Gen_27:9, Jdg_6:19; Jdg_13:15 etc.). The Syrian goat (Capra mambrica) is black or grey, exceptionally white, and has shaggy hair and remarkably long ears. Goat’s hair is extensively woven into cloaks and material for tents (Exo_26:7; Exo_36:14), and their skins are tanned entire to make water-bottles. See Bottle.
Wild goat.—(1) yâ‘çl (cf. proper name Jael), used in pl. ye’çlîm, 1Sa_24:2, Psa_104:18, and Job_39:1. (2) ’akkô, Deu_14:5. Probably both these terms refer to the wild goat or ibex, Capra beden, the beden or ‘goats of Moses’ of the Arabs. It is common on the inaccessible cliffs round the Dead Sea, some of which are known as jebel el-beden, the ‘mountains of the wild goats’ (cf. 1Sa_24:2). The ibex is very shy, and difficult to shoot. Though about the size of an ordinary goat, its great curved horns, often 3 feet long, give it a much more imposing appearance.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


1. Wild goat, yeliym, the ibex of ancient Moab.
2. The goat deer, or else gazelle, aqow.
3. The atuwd, "he goat", the leader of the flock; hence the chief ones of the earth, leaders in mighty wickedness; the ram represents headstrong wantonness and offensive lust (Isa_14:9; Zec_10:3; compare Mat_25:32-33; Eze_34:17). As the word "shepherds" describes what they ought to have been, so "he goats" what they were; heading the flock, they were foremost in sin, so they shall be foremost in punishment. In Son_4:1 the hair of the bride is said to be "as a flock of goats that appear from mount Gilead," alluding to the fine silky hair of some breeds of goat, the angora and others. Amos (Amo_3:12) speaks of a shepherd "taking out of the mouth of the lion a piece of an ear," alluding to the long pendulous ears of the Syrian breed. In Pro_30:31 a he goat is mentioned as one of the "four things comely in going," in allusion to the stately march of the leader of the flock.
4. Sair, the goat of the sin-offering (Lev_9:3), "the rough hairy goat" (Dan_8:21). Sa'ir is used of devils (Lev_17:7), "the evil spirits of the desert" (Isa_13:21; Isa_34:14).
5. Azazeel, "the scape-goat" (Lev_16:8; Lev_16:10; Lev_16:26 margin) (See ATONEMENT, DAY OF.) The "he goat" represented Graeco-Macedonia; Caranus, the first king of Macedon, was in legend led by goats to Edessa, his capital, which he named "the goat city." The one-horned goat is on coins of Archclaus king of Macedon, and a pilaster of Persepolis. So Dan_8:5.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Goat. There appear to be two or three varieties of the common goat, Hircus agagrus, at present bred in Palestine and Syria, but whether they are identical with those which were reared by the ancient Hebrews, it is not possible to say.
The most marked varieties are the Syrian goat, Capra mammorica, and the Angora goat, Capra angorensis, with fine long hair. As to the "wild goats," 1Sa_24:2; Job_39:1; Psa_104:18, it is not at all improbable that some species of ibex is denoted.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


עז . There are other names or appellations given to the goat, as,
1. חשופּ , 1Ki_20:27, which means the ram-goat, or leader of the flock.
2. עתודים , a word which never occurs but in the plural, and means, the best prepared, or choicest of the flock; and metaphorically princes, as, Zec_10:3, “I will visit the goats, saith the Lord,” that is, I will begin my vengeance with the princes of the people. “Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the great goats of the earth,” Isa_14:9; all the kings, all the great men. And Jeremiah, speaking of the princes of the Jews, says, “Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and be as the he-goats before the flocks,” Jeremiah 1, 8.
3. צפיר , a name for the goat, of Chaldee origin, and found only in Ezr_6:17; Ezr_8:35; Dan_8:5; Dan_8:21.
4. עזאזל , from עז , a goat, and אזל , to wander about, Lev_16:8, “the scape-goat.”
5. שער , hairy, or shaggy, whence שעירים , “the shaggy ones.” In Lev_17:7, it is said, “And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils,” (seirim, “hairy ones,”) “after whom they have gone a whoring.” The word here means idolatrous images of goats, worshipped by the Egyptians. It is the same word that is translated satyrs, in Isa_13:21; where the LXX render it δαιμονια, demons. But here they have ματαιοις, to vain things or idols, which comes to the same sense. What gives light to so obscure a passage is what we read in Maimonides, that the Zabian idolaters worshipped demons under the figure of goats, imagining them to appear in that form, whence they called them by the names of seirim; and that this custom, being spread among other nations, gave occasion to this precept. In like manner we learn from Herodotus, that the Egyptians of Mendes held goats to be sacred animals, and represented the god Pan with the legs and head of that animal. From those ancient idolaters the same notion seems to have been derived by the Greeks and Romans, who represented their Pan, their fauns, satyrs, and other idols, in the form of goats: from all which it is highly probable, that the Israelites had learned in Egypt to worship certain demons, or sylvan deities, under the symbolical figure of goats. Though the phrase, “after whom they have gone a whoring,” is equivalent in Scripture to that of committing idolatry, yet we are not to suppose that it is not to be taken in a literal sense in many places, even where it is used in connection with idolatrous acts of worship. It is well known that Baal-peor and Ashtaroth were worshipped with unclean rites, and that public prostitution formed a grand part of the worship of many deities among the Egyptians, Moabites, Canaanites, &c.
The goat was one of the clean beasts which the Israelites might both eat and offer in sacrifice. The kid, גדי , is often mentioned as a food, in a way that implies that it was considered as a delicacy. The אקו , or wild goat, mentioned Deu_14:5, and no where else in the Hebrew Bible, is supposed to be the tragelaphus, or “goat-deer.” Schultens conjectures that this animal might have its name, ob fugacitatem, from its shyness, or running away. The word יעל , occurs 1Sa_24:3; Job_39:1; Psa_104:18; Pro_5:19 : and various have been the sentiments of interpreters on the animal intended by it. Bochart insists that it is the ibex, or “rock-goat.” The root whence the name is derived, signifies to ascend, to mount; and the ibex is famous for clambering, climbing, and leaping, on the most craggy precipices. The Arab writers attribute to the jaal very long horns, bending backward; consequently it cannot be the chamois. The horns of the jaal are reckoned among the valuable articles of traffic, Eze_27:15. The ibex is finely shaped, graceful in its motions, and gentle in its manners. The female is particularly celebrated by natural historians for tender affection to her young, and the incessant vigilance with which she watches over their safety; and also for ardent attachment and fidelity to her mate.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


gōt:
1. Names
The common generic word for ?goat? is עז, ‛ēz (compare Arabic ‛anz, ?she-goat?; αἴξ, aı́x), used often for ?she-goat? (Gen_15:9; Num_15:27), also with גּדי, gedhı̄, ?kid,? as עזּים, gedhı̄ ‛izzı̄m, ?kid of the goats? (Gen_38:17), also with שעיר, sā‛ı̄r, ?he-goat,? as שעיר עזּים, se‛ı̄r ‛izzı̄m, ?kid of the goats? or ?he-goat,? or translated simply ?kids,? as in 1Ki_20:27, ?The children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids.? Next, frequently used is שׂעיר, sā‛ı̄r, literally, ?hairy? (compare Arabic sha‛r, ?hair?; χήρ, chḗr, ?hedgehog?; Latin hircus, ?goat?; hirtus, ?hairy?; also German Haar; English ?hair?), like ‛ēz and ‛attūdh used of goats for offerings. The goat which is sent into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people is sā‛ı̄r (Lev 16:7-22). The same name is used of devils (Lev_17:7; 2Ch_11:15, the Revised Version (British and American) ?he-goats?) and of satyrs (Isa_13:21; Isa_34:14, the Revised Version, margin ?he-goats,? the American Standard Revised Version ?wild goats?). Compare also שׂעירת עזּים, se‛ı̄rath ‛izzı̄m, ?a female from the flock? (Lev_4:28; Lev_5:6). The male or leader of the flock is עתּוּד, ‛attūdh; Arabic ‛atûd, ?yearling he-goat?; figuratively ?chief ones? (Isa_14:9; compare Jer_50:8). A later word for ?he-goat,? used also figuratively, is צפיר, cāphı̄r (2Ch_29:21; Ezr_8:35; Dan_8:5, Dan_8:8, Dan_8:21). In Pro_30:31, one of the four things ?which are stately in going? is the he-goat, תּיש, tayish (Arabic tais, ?he-goat?), also mentioned in Gen_30:35; Gen_32:14 among the possessions of Laban and Jacob, and in 2Ch_17:11 among the animals given as tribute by the Arabians to Jehoshaphat. In Heb_9:12, Heb_9:13, Heb_9:19; Heb_10:4, we have τράγος, trágos, the ordinary Greek word for ?goat?; in Mat_25:32, Mat_25:33, ἔριφος, ériphos, and its diminutive ἐρίφιον, erı́phion; in Heb_11:37 δέρμα αἴγειον, dérma aı́geion, ?goatskin,? from aix (see supra). ?Kid? is גּדי, gedhı̄ (compare En-gedi (1Sa_23:29), etc.), feminine גּדיּה, gedhı̄yāh (Son_1:8), but also ‛ēz, gedhı̄ ‛izzı̄m, se‛ı̄r ‛izzı̄m, se‛ı̄rath ‛izzı̄m, benē ‛izzı̄m, and ériphoš. There remain יעל, yā‛ēl (1Sa_24:2; Job_39:1; Psa_104:18), English Versions of the Bible ?wild goat?; יעלה, ya‛ălāh (Pro_5:19), the King James Version ?roe,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?doe?; אקּו, 'aḳḳō (Deu_14:5), English Versions of the Bible ?wild goat?; and זמר, zemer (Deu_14:5), English Versions of the Bible ?chamois.?
2. Wild Goats
The original of our domestic goats is believed to be the Persian wild goat or pasang, Capra aegagrus, which inhabits some of the Greek islands, Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, and Northwestern India. It is called wa‛l (compare Hebrew yā‛ēl) by the Arabs, who in the North apply the same name to its near relative, the Sinaitic ibex, Capra beden. The last, doubtless the ?wild goat? (yā‛ēl) of the Bible, inhabits Southern Palestine, Arabia, Sinai, and Eastern Egypt, and within its range is uniformly called beden by the Arabs. It is thought by the writer that the ?chamois? (zemer) of Deu_14:5 may be the Persian wild goat. The word occurs only in this passage in the list of clean animals. See CHAMOIS; DEER; ZOOLOGY. Wild goats are found only in Southern Europe, Southwestern Asia, and Northeastern Africa. They include the well-known, but now nearly extinct, Alpine ibex, steinbok, or bouquetin, the markhor, and the Himalayan ibex, which has enormous horns. The so-called Rocky Mountain goat is not properly a goat, but is an animal intermediate between goats and antelopes.
3. Domestic Goats
Domestic goats differ greatly among themselves in the color and length of their hair, in the size and shape of their ears, and in the size and shape of their horns, which are usually larger in the males, but in some breeds may be absent in both sexes. A very constant feature in both wild and domestic goats is the bearded chin of the male. The goats of Palestine and Syria are usually black (Son_4:1), though sometimes partly or entirely white or brown. Their hair is usually long, hanging down from their bodies. The horns are commonly curved outward and backward, but in one very handsome breed they extend nearly outward with slight but graceful curves, sometimes attaining a span of 2 ft. or more in the old males. The profile of the face is distinctly convex. They are herded in the largest numbers in the mountainous or hilly districts, and vie with their wild congeners in climbing into apparently impossible places. They feed not only on herbs, but also on shrubs and small trees, to which they are most destructive. They are largely responsible for the deforested condition of Judea and Lebanon. They reach up the trees to the height of a man, holding themselves nearly or quite erect, and even walk out on low branches.
4. Economy
Apart from the ancient use in sacrifice, which still survives among Moslems, goats are most valuable animals. Their flesh is eaten, and may be had when neither mutton nor beef can be found. Their milk is drunk and made into cheese and semn, a sort of clarified butter much used in cooking. Their hair is woven into tents (Son_1:5), carpets, cloaks, sacks, slings, and various camel, horse and mule trappings. Their skins are made into bottles (nō'dh; Greek askós; Arabic ḳirbeh) for water, oil, semn, and other liquids (compare also Heb_11:37).
5. Religious and Figurative
Just as the kid was often slaughtered for an honored guest (Jdg_6:19; Jdg_13:19), so the kid or goat was frequently taken for sacrifice (Lev_4:23; Lev_9:15; Lev_16:7; Num_15:24; Ezr_8:35; Eze_45:23; Heb_9:12). A goat was one of the clean animals (sēh ‛izzı̄m, Deu_14:4). In Daniel, the powerful king out of the West is typified as a goat with a single horn (Dan_8:5). One of the older goats is the leader of the flock. In some parts of the country the goatherd makes different ones leaders by turns, the leader being trained to keep near the goat-herd and not to eat so long as he wears the bell. In Isa_14:9, ?.... stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth,? the word translated ?chief ones? is ‛attūdh, ?he-goat.? Again, in Jer_50:8, we have ?Go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.? In Mat_25:32, in the scene of the last judgment, we find ?He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats.? It is not infrequent to find a flock including both goats and sheep grazing over the mountains, but they are usually folded separately.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.



Syrian Goat
The races of this animal either known to or kept by the Hebrew people were probably?1. The domestic Syrian long-eared breed, with horns rather small and variously bent; the ears longer than the head, and pendulous; hair long, often black;?2. The Angora, or rather Anadoli breed of Asia Minor, with long hair, more or less fine;?3. The Egyptian breed, with small spiral horns, long brown hair, very long ears;?4. A breed from Upper Egypt without horns, having the nasal bones singularly elevated, the nose contracted, with the lower jaw protruding the incisors, and the female with udder very low and purse-shaped. This race, the most degraded by climate and treatment of all the domestic varieties, is clad in long coarse hair, commonly of a rufous brown color, and so early distinct, that the earlier monuments of Egypt represent it with obvious precision.
The natural history of the domestic goat requires no illustration in this place, and its economic uses demand only a few words. Notwithstanding the offensive lasciviousness which causes it to be significantly separated from sheep, the goat was employed by the people of Israel in many respects as their representative. It was a pure animal for sacrifice (Exo_12:5), and a kid might be substituted as equivalent to a lamb: it formed a principal part of the Hebrew flocks; and both the milk and the young kids were daily articles of food. Among the poorer and more sober shepherd families, the slaughter of a kid was a token of hospitality to strangers, or of unusual festivity; and the prohibition, thrice repeated in the Mosaic law, 'not to seethe a kid in its mother's milk' (Exo_23:19; Exo_34:26; and Deu_14:21), may have originated partly in a desire to recommend abstemiousness, which the legislators and moralists of the East have since invariably enforced with success, and partly with a view to discountenance a practice which was connected with idolatrous festivals, and the rites they involved. It is from goatskins that the leathern bottles to contain wine and other liquids are made in the Levant. For this purpose, after the head and feet are cut away, the case or hide is drawn off the carcass over the neck, without opening the belly; and the extremities being secured, it is dried with the hair in or outside, according to the use it is intended for. The old worn-out skins are liable to burst: hence the obvious propriety of putting new wine into new bottles (Mat_9:17). Harmer appears to have rightly referred the allusion in Amo_3:12, to the long-eared race of goats: 'As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria and Damascus.'

Wild Goat of Sinai
Beside the domestic goats. Western Asia is possessed of one or more wild species?all large and vigorous mountain animals, resembling the ibex or bouquetin of the Alps. Of these, Southern Syria, Arabia, Sinai, and the borders of the Red Sea, contain at least one species, known to the Arabs by the name of Beden or Beddan, and Taytal. We take this animal to be that noticed in 1Sa_24:2; Job_39:1; Psa_104:18; Pro_5:19. The male is considerably taller and more robust than the larger he-goats, the horns forming regular curves backwards, and with from 15 to 24 transverse elevated cross ridges, being sometimes near three feet long, and exceedingly ponderous: there is a beard under the chin, and the fur is dark brown; but the limbs are white, with regular black marks down the front of the legs, with rings of the same color above the knees and on the pasterns. The females are smaller than the males, more slenderly made, brighter rufous, and with the white and black markings on the legs not so distinctly visible. This species live in troops of 15 or 20, and plunge down precipices with the same fearless impetuosity which distinguishes the ibex. Their horns are sold by the Arabs for knife-handles, etc.; but the animals themselves are fast diminishing in number.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Goat
an animal of the genus Capra, found in every part of the world, and easily domesticated. There are various names or appelations given to the goat in the original text of the Scriptures. SEE CATTLE.
1. Most frequently עֵז, ez, generally said to denote the she-goat (as it is rendered in Gen_15:9; Gen_30:35; Gen_31:38; Gen_32:14; Num_15:27), and in several passages undoubtedly so used (Gen_31:38; Gen_32:14; Num_15:27; Pro_27:27); but it is equally certain that it is used also to denote the he-goat (Exo_12:5; Lev_4:23; Num_28:15; 2Ch_29:21; Dan_8:5; Dan_8:8, etc.), which the etymology would seem to show was the original sense. In most of the passages in which it occurs it may denote either the male or the female animal (Gen_27:16; Gen_30:32-33; Gen_37:31; Lev_1:10; Lev_3:12; Lev_7:23; Lev_22:19; 1Sa_25:2; 1Ki_20:27). It is used also to designate a kid (as rendered in Gen_38:17; Gen_38:20; Num_15:11; Jdg_6:19; Jdg_13:15; Jdg_13:19; Jdg_15:1; 1Sa_16:20 [1Ki_20:27; 2Ch_35:7]). From this we are led to conclude that properly it is the generic designation of the animal in its domestic state, a conclusion which seems to be fully established by such usages as גְּדַי עַזַּים, a kid of the goats, עְזַּים שֵׂה, a flock of "goats," i.e. any of the goat species (Geas. 27:9; Deu_14:4). Hochart (Hieroz. book 2, c. 51) derives the word עֵזfroes עֹז, oz, strength; Gesenius and Finrst prefer tracing it up to עָזִז, azaz', to become strong; in either case the ground-idea is the superior strength of the goat as compared with the sheep; Syr. ozo; Arab. onaz (where the n represents the rejected זof עזז); Phomen. oz. of which ozza or azza is the feminine form. Whether there is any affinity between this and the Sanse. dga, fem. agae, Gr. αἰξ, αἰγός, Gott. gaitan, and our goat, may be doubted. In the Sept. עֵזis usually represented by αἴξ, in a few instances by ἔριφος; and when עַזַּיםis used elliptically to denote goat's hair (as in Exo_26:7; Exo_36:14; Num_31:20), the Sept. renders σκύτινος, τρίχινος, or αἴγειος; is 1Sa_19:13 it gives the strange rendering ῏ηπαρ τῶν αἰγῶν, reading כבדfor כביר(comp. Joseph. Ant. 6:11, 4). SEE BOLSTER.
2. The next most frequent term is עִתּוּד, attud, which is used only in the plur. עִתּוּדַים. In the A.V. it is translated sometimes "rams" (Gen_31:10; Gen_31:12), often "he-goats" (Num_7:17-88; Psalms 1, 9; Isa_1:11; Jer_51:40; Eze_34:17), but usually simply "goats" (Deu_22:14; Psalms 1, 13; Psa_66:15; Pro_27:26; Isa_34:6; Eze_27:21; Eze_39:18; Zec_10:3). The singular occus frequently in Arabic atud, and is defined is the Kasnu's as a young goat of a year old (Bochart, Hieroz. book 2, chapter 53, page 646, where other authorities are adduced). The name is derived from עָתִד, atad to set a place, prepare, and hence Bochart infers it describes the animal as fully grown, and so prepared for all its functions and uses; Gesenius, a goat four months old; while others think no more is implied by the name than that this animal was strong and vigorous. The attudim were used in sacrifice (Psa_66:15), and formed an article of commerce (Eze_27:21; Pro_27:26). In Jer_1:8, the word is employed for the leaders of a flock ("chief ones"); and in Isa_14:9, and Zec_10:3, it is used metaphorically for princes or chiefs. SEE HE-GOAT.
3. גְּדַי, gedi', is the young of the goat, a kid. The name is derived by Fürst from the obsolete verb גָּדָה, gadat', to canstalorth, so that it is equivalent to the Latin faetus, but was afterwards restricted to one kind, that of the goat. Gesenius traces it to גָּדָה, yodeh', to crop, and supposes the name was given to it from its cropping the herbage. Both etymologies are purely conjectural. The phrase גְּדַי הָעַזַים, kid of the goats, is frequently used. See above. The reason of this Kischi finds in the generic sense of גדיas applicable originally to the young either of the sheep or goat, so that it required the addition of העזיםto specialize its meaning, until it came by usage to denote only the latter. Ibn-Ezra thinks the addition was made because the gedi, being yet tender, could not be separated from its mother. The flesh of the kid was esteemed a delicacy by the Hebrews. SEE KID.
4. שָׂעַיר, saïr', signifies properly a he-goat, being derived from שָׂעִר, to bristle, i.e., the shaggy ("he-goat," only 2Ch_29:23; "goat," in Lev_4:24; Lev_9:15; x,16; 16:7-27; Num_28:22; Num_29:22-38; Eze_43:25; "satyr," in Isa_13:21; Isa_34:14; "devil," in Lev_17:7; elsewhere "kid"). It occurs frequently in Leviticus and Numbers (הִחִטָּאת שְׂעַיר), and is the goat of the sin-offering (Lev_9:3; Lev_9:15; Lev_10:16). The word is used as an adjective with צָפַירin Dan_8:21, "and the goat, the rough one, is the king of Javan," and also in Gen_27:11; Gen_27:23, "a hairy man." SEE SATYR. The fem. שֹׁעַירָה, seirah', a she-goat, likewise occurs ("kid," Lev_4:28; Lev_5:6). SEE SACRIFICE.
5. צָפַיר, tsaphir', occurs in 2Ch_29:21, and in Dan_8:5; Dan_8:8; it is followed by חָעַזַּים, and signifies a "he-goat" of the-goats. Gesenius derives it from צָפִר, tsaphar', to leap, indicative of the sex. It is a .word found only in the later books of the O.T. In Ezr_6:17, we find the Chald. form of the word, צְפַיר, tsephirs.
6. תִּיַשׁ, ta'yish, a buck, is from a root תַּישׁ, to strike. It is invariably rendered "he-goat" (Gen_30:35; Gen_32:15; Pro_30:31; 2Ch_17:11).
7. In the N.T. the words rendered goat in Mat_25:32-33, are ἔριφος and ἐρίφιον = a young goat or kid; and in Heb_9:12-13; Heb_9:19; Heb_10:4, τράγος = hegoat. Goat-skins, in Heb_11:37, are in the Greek αἴγεια δέρματα; and in Jdg_2:17, αϊvγες is rendered goats.
8. For the undomesticated species several Heb. terms are employed: (I.) יָעֵל, yael', only in the plur. יְעֵלַים, wild or mountain goats, rendered "wild goats" in the passages of Scripture in which the word occurs, viz. 1Sa_24:2; Job_39:1; and Psa_104:18. The word is from a root יָעִל, to ascend or climb, and is the Heb. name of the ibex, which abounds in the mountainous parts of the ancient territory of Moab. In Job_39:1, the Sept. have τραγελάφων πἐτραι. In Pro_5:19, the fem. יִעֲלָה, yaalah', "roe" occurs. See ROE. (2.) אִקּוֹ, akko', rendered wild goat in Deu_14:5, and occurs only in this passage. It is a contracted form of אנקוה, according to Lee, who renders it gazelle, but it is probably larger, more 'nearly approaching the tragelaphus or goat-deer (Shaw, Supplement, page 76). SEE WILD GOAT.
9. Other terms less directly significant of this animal are, (1.) חֲשְׂיּ, chasiph', a flock, i.e., little flock: "two little flocks of kid"' (1Ki_20:27); and (2.) שֶׂה, seh, one of the flock of sheep and goats mixed (Lev_22:28, and frequently "goat" or "kid" in the margin). See FLOCK.
10. For the עֲזָאזֵל, Azazel' (" scape-goat," Lev_16:8; Lev_16:10; Lev_16:26), SEE AZAZEL.
The races either known to or kept by the Hebrew people were probably, 1. The domestic Syrian long-eared breed, with horns rather small and variously bent; the ears longer than the head, and pendulous; hair long, often black. 2. The Angora, or rather Anadoli breed of Asia Minor, with long hair, more or less fine. 3. The Egyptian breed, with small spiral horns, long brown hair, very long ears. 4. A breed from Upper Egypt, without horns, having the nasal bones singularly elevated, the nose contracted, with the lower jaw protruding the incisors, and the female with udder very low, and purse-shaped.
There appear to be two or three varieties of the common goat (Hircus cegagrus) at present bred in Palestine and Syria, but whether they are identical with those which were reared by the ancient Hebrews it is not possible to say. The most marked varieties are the Syrian goat (Capra Mambrica, Linn.), with long, thick, pendent ears, which are often, says Russell (Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, 2:150, 2d edit.), a foot long, and the Angora goat (Capra Angorensis, Linn.), with fine long hair. The Syrian goat is mentioned by Aristotle (Hist. An. 9:27, § 3). There is also a variety that differs but little from British specimens. Goats have from the earliest ages been considered important animals in rural economy, both on account of the milk they afford and the excellency of the flesh of the young animals. The goat is figured on the Egyptian monuments (see Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt. 1:223). Colossians Ham. Smith (Griffiths, An. King. 4:308) describes three Egyptian breeds: one with long hair, depressed horns, ears small and pendent; another with horns very spiral, and ears longer than the head; and a third, which occurs in Upper Egypt, without horns.
Besides the domestic goats, Western Asia is possessed of one or more wild species — all large and vigorous mountain animals, resembling the ibex or bouquetin of the Alps. Of these, Southern Syria, Arabia, Sinai, and the borders of the Red Sea contain at least one species, known to the Arabs by the name of Beden or Beddan, and Taytal — the Capra Jaela of Ham. Smith, and Capra Sinaitica of Ehrenberg. We take this animal to be that noticed under the name of יָעֵל, yael or jaal (1Sa_24:2; Job_39:1; Psalm civ. 18; Pro_5:19). The male is considerably taller and more robust than the larger he-goats, the horns forming regular curves backwards, and with from 15 to 24 transverse elevated cross-ridges, being sometimes near three feet long, and exceedingly ponderous: there is a beard under the chin, and the fur is dark brown; but the limbs are white, with regular black marks down the front of the legs, with rings of the same color above the knees and on the pasterns. The females are smaller than the males, more slenderly made, brighter rufous, and with the white and black markings on the legs not so distinctly visible. This species live in troops of 15 or 20, and plunge down precipices with the same fearless impetuosity that distinguishes the ibex. Their horns are sold by the Arabs for knife handles, etc.; but the animals themselves are fast diminishing in number. SEE IBEX.
In Deu_14:5, אֲקּוֹ, ako is translated "wild goat." Schultens (Origines Hebraicae) conjectures that the name arose from its shyness, and Dr. Harris points out what he takes to be a confirmation of this conjecture in Shaw's travels, who, from the translations of the Sept. and Vulgate, makes it a goat-deer or tragelaphus, under a mistaken view of the classification and habitat of that animal. Akko, therefore, if it be not a second name of the zemer, which we refer to the kebsh, or wild sheep SEE CHAMOIS, as the species must be sought among ruminants that were accessible for food to the Hebrews, we should be inclined to view as the name of one of the gazelles, probably the ahu (Ant. Subgutturosa), unless the Abyssinian ibex (Capra Walie) had formerly extended into Arabia, and it could be shown that it is a distinct species. SEE WILD GOAT.
From very remote antiquity goats have formed an important part of pastoral wealth in the East. They are not mentioned by name in the enumeration of Abram's possessions (Gen_12:16), nor in those of Job (Job_1:3; Job_42:12); but perhaps they are included under the generic term of "flocks," which Lot (Gen_13:5), and, a fortiori, Abram possessed; and a she-goat formed part of the sacrifice offered by Abram on the occasion of the promise of Isaac (Gen_15:9). In the account of the miraculous increase of Jacob's cattle (Gen_31:10; Gen_31:12) we find goats conspicuously mentioned. Their milk has always constituted an important article of food in Palestine (Kitto, Pict. Palestine, 2:304). — Fairbairn. Goats were extensively reared among the Israelites (Lev_3:12; Lev_9:15; Exo_12:5, etc.); their milk was used as food (Pro_27:27); their flesh was eaten (Deu_14:4; Gen_27:9); their hair was used for the curtains of the tabernacle (Exo_26:7; Exo_36:14) and for stuffing bolsters (1Sa_19:13); their skills were sometimes used as clothing (Heb_11:37). Notwithstanding the offensive lasciviousness which causes it to be significantly separated from sheep, the goat was employed by the people of Israel in many respects as their representative. It was a pure animal for sacrifice (Exo_12:5), and a kid might be substituted as equivalent to a lamb: it formed a principal part of the Hebrew flocks, and both the milk and the young kids were daily articles of food. Among the poorer and more sober shepherd families, the slaughter of a kid was a token of hospitality to strangers, or of unusual festivity; and the prohibition, thrice repeated in the Mosaic law, "not to seethe a kid in its mother's milk" (Exo_23:19; Exo_34:26; and Deu_14:21), may have originated partly in a desire to recommend abstemiousness, which the legislators and moralists of the East have since invariably enforced with success, and partly with a view to discountenance a practice which was connected with idolatrous festivals, and the rites they involved. It is from goatskins that the leathern bottles to contain wine and other liquids are made in the Levant. For this purpose, after the head and feet are cut away, the case or hide is drawn off the carcass over the neck, without opening the belly; and the extremities being secured, it is dried with the hair in or outside, according to the use it is intended for. The old worn-out skins are liable to burst: hence the obvious propriety of putting new wine into new bottles (Mat_9:17). Harmner (Obs. 4:162) appears to have rightly referred the allusion in Amo_3:12 to the long-eared race of goats: " As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria and Damascus." — Kitto. The passage in Son_4:1, which compares, the hair of the beloved to "a flock of goats that eat of Mount Gilead," probably alludes to the fine hair of the Angora breed. In Pro_30:31, a he-goat is mentioned as one of the "four things which are comely in going;" in allusion, probably, to the stately march of the leader of the flock, which was always associated in the minds of the Hebrews with the notion of dignity. Hence the metaphor in Isa_14:9, "all the, chief ones (margin, "great goats") of the earth." So the Alexandrine version of the Sept. understands the allusion καὶ τράγος ἡγούμενος αἰπολίον (comp. Theocr. Id. 8:49; Virgil, Ecc_8:7). — Smith. Goats, from their offensiveness, mischievous and libidinous disposition, etc., are symbols of the wicked, who are, at the clay of judgment, to be finally separated from the good (Mat_25:33). SEE SHEEP.
From Lev_17:7, it appears that the rebellious Hebrews, while in the desert, fell into the idolatrous worship of the he-goat (rendered "devils," comp. 2Ch_11:15), after the example of the Egyptians, under whose influences they had grown up. Herodotus says (1:46) that at Mendes, in Lower Egypt, both the male and female goat were worshipped; that the god Pan had the face and thighs of a goat; not that they believed him to be of this figure, but because it had been customary to represent him thus. They paid divine honors, also, to real goats, as appears in the table of His. The Sairim (" wild beasts") of Isa_13:21 were, according to the popular notion, supposed to be wild men SEE APE in the form of he-goats, living in unfrequented, solitary places, and represented as dancing and calling to each other. — Calmet. SEE SPECTRE.
A he-goat was the symbol of the Macedonian empire in the prophetic vision of Daniel (Dan_8:5) — a goat that had a notable born between his eyes. It is interesting to know that this was the recognized symbol of their nation by the Macedonians themselves.
There are coins of Archelaus, king of Macedon (B.C. 413), having as their reverse a one-horned goat; and there is a gem in the Florentine collection, a on which are engraved two heads united at their occiputs, the one that of a ram, the other that of a one-horned goat. By this is expressed the union of the Persian and Macedonian kingdoms, and Mr. T. Combe, who gives us the information, thinks that "it is extremely probable that the gem was engraved after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great." SEE MACEDDONIA.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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