'Animals' in the Bible

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female,

From the clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and every creature that crawls on the ground,

and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark.

When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.

Then Jacob said, “Look, it is still broad daylight. It’s not time for the animals to be gathered. Water the flock, then go out and let them graze.”

And he told the first one: “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘Who do you belong to? Where are you going? And whose animals are these ahead of you?’

He also told the second one, the third, and everyone who was walking behind the animals, “Say the same thing to Esau when you find him.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go on back to the land of Canaan.

And they did this. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and when he struck the dust of the earth, gnats were on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats throughout the land of Egypt.

The magicians tried to produce gnats using their occult practices, but they could not. The gnats remained on man and beast.

It will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt. It will become festering boils on man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.”

You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

“When a man lets a field or vineyard be grazed in, and then allows his animals to go and graze in someone else’s field, he must repay with the best of his own field or vineyard.

But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you.

“Tell the Israelites: You may eat all these kinds of land animals.

All animals that have hooves but do not have a divided hoof and do not chew the cud are unclean for you. Whoever touches them becomes unclean.

All the four-footed animals that walk on their paws are unclean for you. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening,

“If one of the animals that you use for food dies, anyone who touches its carcass will be unclean until evening.

“This is the law concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in the water, and all creatures that swarm on the ground,

in order to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the animals that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.”

Neither you nor a foreigner are to present food to your God from any of these animals. They will not be accepted for you because they are deformed and have a defect.”

All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted.

“If the vow involves one of the animals that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any of these he gives to the Lord will be holy.

“If the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal must be presented before the priest.

Present a fire offering, a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. Your animals are to be unblemished.

Offer them with their drink offerings in addition to the regular burnt offering and its grain offering. Your animals are to be unblemished.

Present a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma: one young bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old. All your animals are to be unblemished.

They brought the prisoners, animals, and spoils of war to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

Our little children, wives, livestock, and all our animals will remain here in the cities of Gilead,

The cities will be for them to live in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds, flocks, and all their other animals.

The Lord your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be able to destroy them all at once; otherwise, the wild animals will become too numerous for you.

These are the animals you may eat:the ox, the sheep, the goat,

But you may take the women, children, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you.

Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.

The men of Israel turned back against the other Benjaminites and killed them with their swords—the entire city, the animals, and everything that remained. They also burned down all the cities that remained.

Rizpah, Aiah’s daughter, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until the rain poured down from heaven on the bodies. She kept the birds of the sky from them by day and the wild animals by night.

He described trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall. He also taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out. After they had traveled their indirect route for seven days, they had no water for the army or their animals.

For the Lord says, ‘You will not see wind or rain, but the wadi will be filled with water, and you will drink—you and your cattle and your animals.’

Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and while the Levites were skinning the animals, the priests sprinkled the blood they had been given.

You will laugh at destruction and hungerand not fear the animals of the earth.

For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

But ask the animals, and they will instruct you;ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earthand makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”

The wild animals enter their lairsand stay in their dens.

The hills yield food for him,while all sorts of wild animals play there.

all the sheep and oxen,as well as the animals in the wild,

But despite his assets, man will not last;he is like the animals that perish.

A man with valuable possessionsbut without understandingis like the animals that perish.

You bring darkness, and it becomes night,when all the forest animals stir.

He struck down the firstborn of Egypt,both man and beast.

He provides the animals with their food,and the young ravens, what they cry for.

wild animals and all cattle,creatures that crawl and flying birds,

I said to myself, “This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

Who knows if the spirit of people rises upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?

But desert creatures will lie down there,and owls will fill the houses.Ostriches will dwell there,and wild goats will leap about.

They will all be left for the birds of prey on the hillsand for the wild animals of the land.The birds will spend the summer on them,and all the animals, the winter on them.

An oracle about the animals of the Negev:Through a land of trouble and distress,of lioness and lion,of viper and flying serpent,they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeysand their treasures on the humps of camels,to a people who will not help them.

Lebanon is not enough for fuel,or its animals enough for a burnt offering.

The animals of the field will honor Me,jackals and ostriches,because I provide water in the wilderness,and rivers in the desert,to give drink to My chosen people.

All you animals of the field and forest,come and eat!

The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.

I will raise weeping and a lamentover the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,for they have been so scorchedthat no one passes through.The sound of cattle is no longer heard.From the birds of the sky to the animals,everything has fled—they have gone away.

How long will the land mournand the grass of every field wither?Because of the evil of its residents,animals and birds have been swept away,for the people have said,“He cannot see what our end will be.”

Is My inheritance like a hyena to Me?Are birds of prey circling her?Go, gather all the wild animals;bring them to devour her.

“I will ordain four kinds of judgment for them”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land to devour and destroy.

They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like manure on the face of the earth. They will be finished off by sword and famine. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.

I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.

By My great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please.

So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him.

For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations that they might serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have also put the wild animals under him.’”

will be handed over to their enemies, to those who want to take their life. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.

I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, Jerusalem. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, Yahweh, have spoken.”

“If I allow dangerous animals to pass through the land and depopulate it so that it becomes desolate, with no one passing through it for fear of the animals,

“For this is what the Lord God says: How much worse will it be when I send My four devastating judgments against Jerusalem—sword, famine, dangerous animals, and plague—in order to wipe out both man and animal from it!

All the birds of the skynested in its branches,and all the animals of the fieldgave birth beneath its boughs;all the great nations lived in its shade.

All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs.

“Tell them this: This is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I have given to wild animals to be devoured, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.

They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered.

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous animals in the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the land will not consume them. They will live securely, and no one will frighten them.

I will fill you with people and animals, and they will increase and be fruitful. I will make you inhabited as you once were and make you better off than you were before. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, every creature that crawls on the ground, and every human being on the face of the earth will tremble before Me. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.

You, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you will fall on the mountains of Israel. I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and to the wild animals.

“Son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Tell every kind of bird and all the wild animals: Assemble and come! Gather from all around to My sacrificial feast that I am slaughtering for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel; you will eat flesh and drink blood.

Wherever people live—or wild animals, or birds of the air—He has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.

Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant,and on it was food for all.Wild animals found shelter under it,the birds of the air lived in its branches,and every creature was fed from it.

He called out loudly:Cut down the tree and chop off its branches;strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.Let the animals flee from under it,and the birds from its branches.

But leave the stump with its roots in the ground,and with a band of iron and bronze around it,in the tender grass of the field.Let him be drenched with dew from the skyand share the plants of the earthwith the animals.

whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant—and on it was food for all, under it the wild animals lived, and in its branches the birds of the air lived—

“The king saw an observer, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with dew from the sky, and share food with the wild animals for seven periods of time.’

You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and He gives it to anyone He wants.

You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and He gives it to anyone He wants.”

I will devastate her vines and fig trees.She thinks that these are her wagesthat her lovers have given her.I will turn them into a thicket,and the wild animals will eat them.