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 beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And Jehovah Elohim said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, be thou cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. On thy belly shalt thou go, and eat dust all the days of thy life.
Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.
And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
And Jehovah did this thing on the following day, and all the cattle of Egypt died; but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
but the seventh day is the sabbath of Jehovah thy God: thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy bondman, nor thy handmaid, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.
but in the seventh thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat of it; and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thine olive-tree. Six days thou shalt do thy work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which ye shall eat of all the beasts which are on the earth. Whatever hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts that shall ye eat. read more. Only these shall ye not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those with cloven hoofs: the camel, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs it shall be unclean unto you; and the rock-badger, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs it shall be unclean unto you; and the hare, for it cheweth the cud, but hath not cloven hoofs it shall be unclean unto you; and the swine, for it hath cloven hoofs, and feet quite split open, but it cheweth not the cud it shall be unclean unto you.
A cow, or sheep it and its young shall ye not slaughter in one day.
and for the beasts that are in thy land: all the produce thereof shall be for food.
Many bulls have encompassed me; Bashan's strong ones have beset me round.
For dogs have encompassed me; an assembly of evil-doers have surrounded me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
Thy righteousness is like the high mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: thou, Jehovah, preservest man and beast.
Thou didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
In that day Jehovah, with his sore and great and strong sword, will visit leviathan the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.
speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which saith, My river is mine own, and I made it for myself.
so that the fish of the sea, and the fowl of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things which creep upon the earth, and all mankind that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence; and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
For this shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
and before the throne, as a glass sea, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, four living creatures, full of eyes, before and behind;
And when they shall have completed their testimony, the beast who comes up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and shall conquer them, and shall kill them:
And when the dragon saw that he had been cast out into the earth, he persecuted the woman which bore the male child.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea; and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns ten diadems, 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 beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Jehovah, thy loving-kindness is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
But beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of owls; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
If, to speak after the manner of man, I have fought with beasts in Ephesus, what is the profit to me if those that are dead do not rise? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.