Reference: Dragon
American
Answers, in the English Bible, the Hebrew word signifying a sea-monster, huge serpent, etc. Thus in De 32:33; Jer 51:34; Re 12, it evidently implies a huge serpent; in Isa 27:1; 51:9; Eze 29:3, it may mean the crocodile, or any large sea-monster; while in Job 30:29; La 4:3; Mic 1:8, it seems to refer to some wild animal of the desert, most probably the jackal. The animal known to modern naturalists under the name of dragon, is a harmless species of lizard, found in Asia and Africa.
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I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to death the dragon which is in the sea.
Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded?
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me with his teeth.
Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land.
Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile is mine, and I have made it for myself.
For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.
Easton
(1.) Heb tannim, plural of tan. The name of some unknown creature inhabiting desert places and ruins (Job 30:29; Ps 44:19; Isa 13:22; 34:13; 43:20; Jer 10:22; Mic 1:8; Mal 1:3); probably, as translated in the Revised Version, the jackal (q.v.).
(2.) Heb tannin. Some great sea monster (Jer 51:34 it may denote the crocodile. In Ge 1:21 (Heb plural tanninim) the Authorized Version renders "whales," and the Revised Version "sea monsters." It is rendered "serpent" in Ex 7:9. It is used figuratively in Ps 74:13; Eze 29:3.
In the New Testament the word "dragon" is found only in Re 12:3-4,7,9,16-17, etc., and is there used metaphorically of "Satan." (See Whale.)
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And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.
If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake.
I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade.
The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
And wolves will be answering one another in their towers, and jackals in their houses of pleasure: her time is near, and her days of power will quickly be ended.
And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself:
News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me with his teeth.
Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile is mine, and I have made it for myself.
For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.
And Esau was hated, and I sent destruction on his mountains, and gave his heritage to the beasts of the waste land.
And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. And his tail was pulling a third part of the stars of heaven down to the earth, and the dragon took his place before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when the birth had taken place he might put an end to her child.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going out to the fight with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels made war,
And the great dragon was forced down, the old snake, who is named the Evil One and Satan, by whom all the earth is turned from the right way; he was forced down to the earth, and his angels were forced down with him.
And the earth gave help to the woman, and with open mouth took up the river which the dragon sent out of his mouth. And the dragon was angry with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her seed, who keep the orders of God, and the witness of Jesus:
Fausets
Tannin, tan. Tan in Jer 14:6, "dragons" "snuffing up the wind" is translated by Henderson jackals; rather the great boas and python serpents are meant, which raise their body vertically ten or twelve feet high, surveying the neighborhood above the bushes, while with open jaws they drink in the air. They were made types of the deluge and all destructive agencies; hence the dragon temples are placed near water in Asia, Africa, and Britain, e.g. that of Abury in Wiltshire. The ark is often associated with it, as the preserver from the waters. The dragon temples are serpentine in form; dragon standards were used in Egypt and Babylon, and among the widely-scattered Celts.
Apollo's slaying Python is the Greek legend implying the triumph of light over darkness and evil. The tannin are any great monsters, whether of land or sea, trans. Ge 1:21 "great sea monsters." So (La 4:3) "even sea monsters (tannin) draw out the breast," alluding to the mammalia which sometimes visit the Mediterranean, or the halichore cow whale of the Red Sea. Large whales do not often frequent the Mediterranean, which was the sea that the Israelites knew; they apply "sea" to the Nile and Euphrates, and so apply "tannin" to the crocodile, their horror in Egypt, as also to the large serpents which they saw in the desert. "The dragon in the sea," which Jehovah shall punish in the day of Israel's deliverance, is Antichrist, the antitype to Babylon on the Euphrates' waters (Isa 27:1).
In Ps 74:13, "Thou brokest the heads of the dragons in the waters," Egypt's princes and Pharaoh are poetically represented hereby, just as crocodiles are the monarchs of the Nile waters. So (Isa 51:9-10) the crocodile is the emblem of Egypt and its king on coins of Augustus struck after the conquest of Egypt. "A habitation of dragons" expresses utter desolation, as venomous snakes abound in ruins of ancient cities (De 32:33; Jer 49:33; Isa 34:13). In the New Testament it symbolizes Satan the old serpent (Genesis 3), combining gigantic strength with craft, malignity, and venom (Re 12:3). The dragon's color, "red," fiery red, implies that he was a murderer from the beginning.
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And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.
The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to death the dragon which is in the sea.
And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded? Did you not make the sea dry, the waters of the great deep? did you not make the deep waters of the sea a way for the Lord's people to go through?
And the asses of the field on the open hilltops are opening their mouths wide like jackals to get air; their eyes are hollow because there is no grass.
And Hazor will be a hole for jackals, a waste for ever: no one will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there.
Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land.
And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.
Hastings
(1) tann
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And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.
If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake. Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake. read more. Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For every one of them put down his rod on the earth, and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their rods.
Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?
I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade.
The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
And wolves will be answering one another in their towers, and jackals in their houses of pleasure: her time is near, and her days of power will quickly be ended.
And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass.
Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded?
News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.
And Hazor will be a hole for jackals, a waste for ever: no one will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there.
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me with his teeth.
Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile is mine, and I have made it for myself.
Son of man, make a song of grief for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, Young lion of the nations, destruction has come on you; and you were like a sea-beast in the seas, sending out bursts of water, troubling the waters with your feet, making their streams dirty.
And Esau was hated, and I sent destruction on his mountains, and gave his heritage to the beasts of the waste land.
And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.
Morish
tannin, ??????. It may signify any great serpent or sea monster, symbolical of a huge destructive creature. Nations doomed to destruction and desolation, including Jerusalem, are said to become habitations of dragons. Isa 34:13; 35:7; Jer 9:11; 10:22; 51:37. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is called the great dragon. Eze 29:3. As one of God's creatures the dragon is called upon to praise Jehovah. Ps 148:7. In the N.T. the dragon is a type of Satan and those energised by him. In Re 12:3 the "great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns," is symbolical of Satan's power in the form of the Roman empire: it endeavoured, in the person of Herod, to destroy Christ when born. In Re 13:2,4 it is Satan who gives the resuscitated Roman empire in a future day its throne and great authority. In Re 13:11 the Antichrist, who has two horns like a lamb, speaks as a dragon. In Re 16:13 it is Satan, and in Re 20:2 he is described as "that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan."
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Give praise to the Lord from the earth, you great sea-beasts, and deep places:
And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass.
And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there.
News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals.
And Babylon will become a mass of broken walls, a hole for jackals, a cause of wonder and surprise, without a living man in it.
Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile is mine, and I have made it for myself.
And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.
And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority.
And they gave worship to the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast; and worshipping the beast, they said, Who is like the beast? and who is able to go to war with him?
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and his voice was like that of a dragon.
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, like frogs.
And he took the dragon, the old snake, which is the Evil One and Satan, and put chains on him for a thousand years,
Smith
Dragon.
The translators of the Authorized Version, apparently following the Vulgate, have rendered by the same word "dragon" the two Hebrew words tan and tannin, which appear to be quite distinct in meaning.
1. The former is used, always in the plural, in
Job 30:29; Ps 44:19; Isa 34:13; 43:20; Jer 9:11
It is always applied to some creatures inhabiting the desert, and we should conclude from this that it refers rather to some wild beast than to a serpent. The syriac renders it by a word which, according to Pococke, means a "jackal."
2. The word tannin seems to refer to any great monster, whether of the land or the sea, being indeed more usually applied to some kind of serpent or reptile, but not exclusively restricted to that sense.
Ex 7:9-10,12; De 32:33; Ps 91:13
In the New Testament it is found only in the Apocalypse,
etc., as applied metaphorically to "the old serpent, called the devil, and Satan."
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If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake. Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.
For every one of them put down his rod on the earth, and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their rods.
I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade.
You will put your foot on the lion and the snake; the young lion and the great snake will be crushed under your feet.
And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches.
The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself:
And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there.
And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. And his tail was pulling a third part of the stars of heaven down to the earth, and the dragon took his place before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when the birth had taken place he might put an end to her child.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going out to the fight with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels made war,
And the great dragon was forced down, the old snake, who is named the Evil One and Satan, by whom all the earth is turned from the right way; he was forced down to the earth, and his angels were forced down with him.
And the earth gave help to the woman, and with open mouth took up the river which the dragon sent out of his mouth. And the dragon was angry with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her seed, who keep the orders of God, and the witness of Jesus:
Watsons
DRAGON. This word is frequently to be met with in our English translation of the Bible. It answers generally to the Hebrew ??, ????, ????; and these words are variously rendered dragons, serpents, sea- monsters, and whales. The Rev. James Hurdis, in a dissertation relative to this subject, observes, that the word translated "whales," in Ge 1:21, occurs twenty-seven times in Scripture; and he attempts, with much ingenuity, to prove that it every where signifies the crocodile. That it sometimes has this meaning, he thinks is clear from Eze 29:3: "Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers." For, to what could a king of Egypt be more properly compared than the crocodile? The same argument he draws from Isa 51:9: "Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, [Egypt,] and wounded the dragon?" Among the ancients the crocodile was the symbol of Egypt, and appears so on Roman coins. Some however have thought the hippopotamus intended; others, one of the larger species of serpents.
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And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.
Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded?