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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Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
In that day Jehovah with His great and fierce and strong sword shall punish the sea-monster, the darting serpent, the sea-monster, that twisting serpent; and He shall kill the monster in the sea.
Awake! awake! Put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake! as in the days of old, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab into pieces, piercing the sea-monster?
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a jackal; he has filled his belly with good things; he has thrown me out;
Even the jackals draw out the breast; they suckle their young ones. The daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Speak and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is mine, and I have made it.
Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like jackals, mourn like the daughters of an ostrich.
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 created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
When Pharaoh shall speak to you saying, Give a miracle for yourselves, you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and throw it in front of Pharaoh. It shall become a snake.
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
though You have crushed us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
You divide the sea by Your strength; You break the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
And hyenas shall cry along with his widows, and jackals in palaces of delight. Yea, her time is coming near, and her days shall not be prolonged.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for ostriches.
The beasts of the field shall honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.
Behold, the noise of the rumor has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a den of jackals.
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a jackal; he has filled his belly with good things; he has thrown me out;
Speak and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is mine, and I have made it.
Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like jackals, mourn like the daughters of an ostrich.
and I hated Esau and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness.
And another sign was seen in the heavens. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads! And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them onto the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman being about to bear, so that when she bears he might devour her child.
And there was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels warring against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels warred,
And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
And the earth helped the woman. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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 created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
You divide the sea by Your strength; You break the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
In that day Jehovah with His great and fierce and strong sword shall punish the sea-monster, the darting serpent, the sea-monster, that twisting serpent; and He shall kill the monster in the sea.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for ostriches.
Awake! awake! Put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake! as in the days of old, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab into pieces, piercing the sea-monster? Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
And the wild asses stood in the high places; they snuffed up the wind like jackals; their eyes failed because there was no grass.
And Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals and a ruin forever. No man shall live there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
Even the jackals draw out the breast; they suckle their young ones. The daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
And another sign was seen in the heavens. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads!
Hastings
(1) tann
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And God created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
When Pharaoh shall speak to you saying, Give a miracle for yourselves, you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and throw it in front of Pharaoh. It shall become a snake. And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh. And they did so, as Jehovah had commanded. And Aaron threw down his rod in front of Pharaoh and in front of his servants, and it became a snake. read more. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. And they, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each man threw down his rod, and they became snakes. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
Am I like the sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
though You have crushed us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
You divide the sea by Your strength; You break the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
And hyenas shall cry along with his widows, and jackals in palaces of delight. Yea, her time is coming near, and her days shall not be prolonged.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for ostriches.
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land shall become springs of water in the home of jackals, in its lair, and a place for the reed and rush.
Awake! awake! Put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake! as in the days of old, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab into pieces, piercing the sea-monster?
Behold, the noise of the rumor has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a den of jackals.
And Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals and a ruin forever. No man shall live there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a jackal; he has filled his belly with good things; he has thrown me out;
Speak and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is mine, and I have made it.
Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, You were like a young lion of the nations, but you were like a sea-monster. And you came out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
and I hated Esau and made his mountains a desolation, and his inheritance to be for the jackals of the wilderness.
And another sign was seen in the heavens. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads!
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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Let praise be to Jehovah from the earth, the sea-monsters, and all deeps;
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for ostriches.
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land shall become springs of water in the home of jackals, in its lair, and a place for the reed and rush.
And I will make Jerusalem ruins, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without a living soul.
Behold, the noise of the rumor has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a den of jackals.
And Babylon shall become heaps, a home for jackals, a horror and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
Speak and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is mine, and I have made it.
And another sign was seen in the heavens. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads!
And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and its feet like those of a bear, and its mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him its power and its seat and great authority.
And they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with it?
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. And it had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him 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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When Pharaoh shall speak to you saying, Give a miracle for yourselves, you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and throw it in front of Pharaoh. It shall become a snake. And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh. And they did so, as Jehovah had commanded. And Aaron threw down his rod in front of Pharaoh and in front of his servants, and it became a snake.
For each man threw down his rod, and they became snakes. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
though You have crushed us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
You shall tread on the lion and adder; the young lion and the jackal You shall trample underfoot.
And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it shall be a home of jackals and a court for ostriches.
The beasts of the field shall honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.
And I will make Jerusalem ruins, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without a living soul.
And another sign was seen in the heavens. And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads! And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them onto the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman being about to bear, so that when she bears he might devour her child.
And there was war in Heaven. Michael and his angels warring against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels warred,
And the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
And the earth helped the woman. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged over the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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 created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Awake! awake! Put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake! as in the days of old, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab into pieces, piercing the sea-monster?
Speak and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, My river is mine, and I have made it.