Reference: BEASTS
American
This word, used in contradistinction to man, denotes all animals besides, Ps 36:6, sometimes it means quadrupeds, and not creeping things, Le 11:2-7; and sometimes domestic cattle, in distinction from wild creatures, Ge 1:25. They were all brought to Adam to be named. Few are mentioned in the Bible but such as lived in Palestine and the countries adjacent. Beasts suffer with man under the penalties of the fall, Ge 3:14; Ex 9:6; 3:15; Eze 38:20; Ho 4:3. Yet various merciful provision for them were made in the Jewish law, Ex 20:10; 23:11-12; Le 22:28; 25:7. Animals were classed in the law as clean or unclean, with a primary reference to animal sacrifices, Ge 7:2; Le 11 The word beasts is figuratively used to symbolize various kings and nations, Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1; Eze 29:3; Da 7; 7:8; Re 12:13. It also describes the character of violent and brutal men, Ps 22:12,16; 1Co 15:32; 2Pe 2:12. The Hebrew word commonly rendered beast signifies living creatures. In Ezekiel's vision, Eze 1, this is applied to human beings or their symbols. In the book of Revelation two distinct words are employed symbolically, both rendered "beast" in our version. One is applied to persecuting earthly powers, Re 11:7; 13:1, etc.; the other to superhuman beings or their symbols, Re 4:6, etc. this latter might be appropriately rendered, "living creature," as the corresponding Hebrew word is in Ezekiel.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And LORD God said to the serpent, Because thou have done this, cursed are thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shall go, and dust thou shall eat all the days of thy life.
Of every clean beast thou shall take to thee by sevens, the male and his female. And of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female.
And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall thou say to the sons of Israel, LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memor
And LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the sons of Israel not one died.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to LORD thy God. Thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates,
but the seventh year thou shall let it rest and lay fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat, and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shall deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard. Six days thou shall do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shall rest, that thine ox and thy donkey may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed.
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, These are the living things which ye may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven footed, [and] chews the cud, among the beasts, that may ye eat. read more. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that part the hoof: the camel, because he chews the cud but does not part the hoof, he is unclean to you. And the coney, because he chews the cud but does not part the hoof, he is unclean to you. And the hare, because she chews the cud but does not part the hoof, she is unclean to you. And the swine, because he parts the hoof, and is cloven footed, but does not chew the cud, he is unclean to you.
And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and its young both in one day.
And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, all the increase of it shall be for food.
Many bulls have encompassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me around.
For dogs have encompassed me. A company of evil-doers have enclosed me. {They pierced (LXX/DSS)} my hands and my feet.
Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God. Thy judgments are a great deep. O LORD, thou preserve man and beast.
Thou break the heads of leviathan in pieces. Thou gave him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
In that day LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
Speak, and say, Thus says lord LORD: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lays in the midst of his rivers, that has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.
so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men who are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence. And the mo
Therefore the land shall mourn, and everyone who dwells in it shall languish with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens. Yea, the fishes of the sea shall also be taken away.
And before the throne was like a glassy sea similar to crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and all around the throne, were four beings containing eyes in front and back.
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the abyss will make war with them, and he will overcome them and kill them.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having ten horns, and seven heads, and ten diadems upon its horns, and upon its heads names of blasphemy.
Watsons
BEASTS. When this word is used in opposition to man, as Ps 36:5, any brute creature is signified; when to creeping things, as Leviticus 11:2, 7; 29:30, four-looted animals, from the size of the hare and upward, are intended; and when to wild creatures, as Ge 1:25, cattle, or tame animals, are spoken of. In Isa 13:21, several wild animals are mentioned as dwelling among the ruins of Babylon: "Wild beasts of the desert," ????, those of the dry wilderness, as the root of the word implies, "shall dwell there. Their houses shall be full of doleful creatures," ????, marsh animals. "Owls shall dwell there," ostriches, "and satyrs," ??????, shaggy ones, "shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands," ????, oases of the desert, "shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons," ????, crocodiles, or amphibious animals, "shall be in their desolate places." St. Paul, 1Co 15:32, speaks of fighting with beasts, &c: by which he does not mean his having been exposed in the amphitheatre to fight as a gladiator, as some have conjectured, but that he had to contend at Ephesus with the fierce uproar of Demetrius and his associates. Ignatius uses the same figure in his epistle to the Romans: "From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts, both by sea and land, both night and day, being bound to ten leopards;" that is, to a band of soldiers. So Lucian, in like manner, says, "For I am not to fight with ordinary wild beasts, but with men, insolent and hard to be convinced." In Re 4; 5; 6, mention is made of four beasts, or rather, as the word ??? signifies, living creatures, as in Ezekiel 1; and so the word might have been less harshly translated. Wild beasts are used in Scripture as emblems of tyrannical and persecuting powers. The most illustrious conquerors of antiquity also have not a more honourable emblem.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Thy loving kindness, O LORD, is in the heavens, thy faithfulness to the skies.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lay there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures. And ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
If in respect to men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what is the benefit to me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.