UNICORNS in the Bible!?!??!?!?

Question

[Isaiah 34:7] "And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness."



Did they seriously put that in the BIBLE??!?? Or am I once again putting it "out of context."

Answer 1

Isaiah 34:6-8 :: Contemporary English Version (CEV)

6 The sword of the LORD is covered with blood from lambs and goats, together with fat from kidneys of rams. This is because the LORD will slaughter many people and make a sacrifice of them in the city of Bozrah and everywhere else in Edom.
7 Edom's leaders are wild oxen. They are powerful bulls, but they will die with the others. Their country will be soaked with their blood, and its soil made fertile with their fat.
8 The LORD has chosen the year and the day, when he will take revenge and come to Zion's defense.



Hmmmm... I see nothing about unicorns here. Maybe you need a better copy?

Answer 2

It is in there as another word for "wild oxen." This section of the Bible is apocalyptic in nature from 34:1---35:10 of Isaiah. The world wide carnage of the Battle of Armegeddon when God's wrath is poured out on all nations. This great destruction will be so bad that it will usher in the New Heavens and New Earth.

It is seriously in the Bible and you have read it correctly. And yes the unicorn is considered a mythical creature and the Bible states this mythical creature will come down at the wrath of Almighty God. So there is more to the unicorn than we have ever thought. Also the streams of water will turn to pitch (tar) in Edom.
(Idumea) I truly believe that before the flood creatures were extremely different and so were people. The Bible speaks of giants and we have found some of their bones.

Answer 3

The word being translated as 'unicorn' is re'emim which refers to an unspecified horned animal. The connotation is one in which the horns are a primary decoration on the animal...an example would be bighorn sheep where the larger the horns, the more prominant the animal.

How 'unicorn' slipped into Christian translations is beyond me, however, I suspect that the non-precise nature of the hebrew gave the early translators to Greek fits and they chose a mythological creature that seemed to fit the bill to appeal to the pagans they were trying to attract.

Answer 4

That's the King James interpretation.

The NIV - Which has exceedingly more accurate language - says:

And the wild oxen will fall with them,
the bull calves and the great bulls.
Their land will be drenched with blood,
and the dust will be soaked with fat.

Answer 5

If you get a Strong's Concordiance it would define a unicorn as an Wild Ox. Unicorn I believe was mistranslated in the bible. There were many things in the bible mistranslated.
You will also find unicorn in many places, but, if you go to Job 39:9 Will the unicorn (wild Ox) be will to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? I would translate this as: Will the wild ox be will to pull your plow.

Answer 6

You are correct. This is part of a future prophesy that will occur at the end of the Great Tribulation. As far as the unicorn is concerned, this is some sort of celestial creature, angelic in nature. It is not an object of magic or worship, for we are to worship God only.

Answer 7

Yes the bible mentions Unicorns, but the idea of what a unicorn is versus what people typically believe as being unicorns is not the same. See exert below from Wikipedia:

A one-horned animal (which may be just a bull in profile) is found on some seals from the Indus Valley civilization.[4] Seals with such a design are thought to be a mark of high social rank.[5]

An animal called the re'em is mentioned in several places in the Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength. "The allusions to the re'em as a wild, untamable animal of great strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job 39:9-12, Ps 22:21, 29:6, Num 23:22, 24:8, Deut 33:17 comp. Ps 92:11), best fit the aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted as a powerful, fierce, wild, or mountain bull with large horns."[6] This animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile with only one horn visible.

The translators of the King James Version of the Bible (1611) employed unicorn to translate re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its untamable nature.

Job 39:9-12: Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Psalms 29:6: He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Numbers 24:8: ...he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn

Unicorns are not found in Greek mythology, but rather in accounts of natural history for Greek writers on natural history were convinced of the reality of the unicorn, which they located in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias who described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length and colored white, red and black. [1] Aristotle must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the oryx (a kind of antelope) and the so-called "Indian ***".[7] [8] Strabo says that in the Caucasus there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads.[9] Pliny the Elder mentions the oryx and an Indian ox (perhaps a rhinoceros) as one-horned beasts, as well as "a very fierce animal called the monoceros (μονοκερως), which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length."[10] In De natura animalium, Aelian, quoting Ctesias, adds that India produces also a one-horned horse (iii. 41; iv. 52), and says (xvi. 20) that the monoceros was sometimes called carcazonon, which may be a form of the Arabic carcadn, meaning "rhinoceros".

Answer 8

Yes, "unicorns" in the King James Version bible. Not in the original manuscripts though.

Answer 9

Isa 34:7 And the unicorns7214 shall come down3381 with5973 them, and the bullocks6499 with5973 the bulls;47 and their land776 shall be soaked7301 with blood,4480, 1818 and their dust6083 made fat1878 with fatness.4480, 2459


H7214
רם רים ראים ראם
re'êm re'êym rêym rêm
reh-ame', reh-ame', rame, rame
From H7213; a wild bull (from its conspicuousness): - unicorn.

Answer 10

"The Hebrew word represented in the King James Version by “unicorn” is re’em, which undoubtedly refers to the wild ox (urus or aurochs) ancestral to the domesticated cattle of today. The re’em still flourished in early historical times and a few existed into modern times, although it is now extinct. It was a dangerous creature of great strength and was similar in form and temperament to the Asian buffaloes."

"The Revised Standard Version translates re’em as 'wild ox.' The verse in Numbers is translated as “they have as it were the horns of the wild ox,” while the one in Job is translated “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?” The Anchor Bible translates the verse in Job as “Will the buffalo deign to serve you?”

The wild ox was a favorite prey of the hunt-loving Assyrian monarchs (the animal was called rumu in Assyrian, essentially the same word as re’em) and was displayed in their large bas-reliefs. Here the wild ox was invariably shown in profile and only one horn was visible. One can well imagine that the animal represented in this fashion would come to be called “one-horn” as a familiar nickname, much as we might refer to “longhorn” in speaking of a certain breed of cattle.