Why does the bible mention the mythical unicorn in at least five places?

Question

The places are Numbers 23:22, Numbers 24:8; Job 39:9; Psalm 29:6 and Isaiah 34:7.

Answer 1

The word unicorn mentioned in the Bible was the wrong translation. The original Hebrew word is "ra'am {raw-am'}". It means wild ox.

Answer 2

When you read the bible, you have to realize when it was translated and written.
You are saying mythical because you're thinking of a horned horse. That's the definition that you get from today's fairy tales.
But, that's not the picture you get from the description of one in Job.
It is talking about a huge powerful beast that is untamable. It is used as a reference of power and strength every time it is mentioned.
It is most likely some kind of rhino. Since the word "rhinoceros" wasn't invented until after the bible was written, they used the word unicorn.
It is probably an extinct species of rhino that was even bigger than today's rhinos.
This is from wikpedia
Notice at the bottom it talks about how dangerous they are. This would coincide with the bible's mention of one as a fierce and powerful animal.
When reading the bible, you must try to put yourself in the time and place of the text. You get so much more out of it that way.

The rhinoceros (commonly called rhino for short; plural can be either rhinoceros or rhinoceroses) is any of five surviving species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. All five species are native to Africa or Asia. Rhinoceros is also one of the genera in this family.

The family is characterised by: large size (one of the few remaining megafauna surviving today) with all of the species capable of reaching one tonne or more in weight; one or two horns on the centre of the forehead, and when two, aligned one in front of the other (not side by side); herbivorous diet; and a thick protective skin, 1.5-5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure. Rhinoceros also share acute hearing and sense of smell, but poor eyesight over any distance. Most rhinoceros live to be about 40 years old. A male rhinoceros is called a bull, a female a cow, and the young a calf; a group of rhinoceros is called a "crash".

Rhinoceros, despite being herbivorous, are dangerous animals. In India and Nepal, the Indian rhinos cause the greatest number of human deaths each year, surpassing those caused by tigers and leopards. They have been known to charge even working elephants carrying tourists through the jungles.

Answer 3

Not sure which translation of the hebrew text you are reading, but mine (NIV) refers to a "wild ox" or "wild oxen" in those passages....not a unicorn. The other word that has been translated from the Hebrew is "oryx".

From Wikipedia: An Oryx is one of three or four large antelope species of the genus Oryx, typically having long straight almost upright horns. Three of the species are found in Africa with a fourth in Arabia. Small populations exist in Texas and New Mexico, USA. A Governor in the 1940s imported some for his exotic hunting tastes and they have flourished since.

Some taxonomists describe Oryx beisa as a subspecies of Oryx gazella. The Arabian oryx, the smallest species became extinct in the wild in 1972 from the Arabian Peninsula. It was reintroduced in 1982 in Oman but poaching has had negative effects on the species. Subsequent reintroduction programmes have placed the number of Arabian oryx in the wild at around 250. About 600 more are in captivity. The oryx dammah is now extinct from the wild in Africa, however.

Newborn calves can run with the herd immediately after birth. Both males and females have permanent, narrow, straight horns. These horns are quite dangerous.

The Oryx, when seen from the side, appears to have only one single horn which leads to speculations that it is probably the animal initially mistaken for Unicorn myths.

So...not a Unicorn(!)...a wild ox or antelope. But don't feel bad...apparently people have been making this mistake for centuries! :)

Answer 4

Num 23:22. God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.

Num 24:8. God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros. They shall devour the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them with arrows.

Job 39:9. Shall the rhinoceros be willing to serve thee, or will he stay at thy crib?

Psalm 29:6. For wrath is in his indignation; and life in his good will. In the evening weeping shall have place, and in the morning gladness.

Isaiah 34:7. And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones.


Isaiah is the only one who mentions unicorns, and here they're just a symbol for the great and the powerful.

Answer 5

Probably because you are reading from the King James Version which translates the Hebrew word "rehame" as unicorn. Modern day translations render it wild ox or wild bull.

Answer 6

Well every good story book has a unicorn in it.

Answer 7

You mean the Wild Ox?? What edition are you reading?

Answer 8

All those passages refer to a wild bull.

Answer 9

I thought it was a eunoch horn..

(though more than 5 of those around the vestal virgins)

Answer 10

is. 34:7 is also wild oxen.
sorry!