Unicorn

From Textus Receptus

Revision as of 16:49, 28 November 2008

A Unicorn is a Rinoceros as stated in the margin of the original 1611 King James Bible in Isaiah 34:7 where it reads: “And the unicorns shall come down with them.”

Unicorn in the KJV

The Word Unicorn(s) appears 6 times in the KJV.

Numbers 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8 God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

Deut 33:17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalms 22:21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalms 29:6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalms 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

Correct Definitions

Daniel Webster’s Dictionary of 1828

n. [L. unicornis; unus, one, and cornu, horn.]
1. an animal with one horn; the monoceros. this name is often applied to the rhinoceros.
2. The sea unicorn is a fish of the whale kind, called narwal, remarkable for a horn growing out at his nose.
3. A fowl.
fossil unicorn, or fossil unicorn's horn, a substance used in medicine, a terrene crustaceous spar.

Pliny the Elder (First century AD)

“an exceedingly wild beast called the Monoceros (one - horned)...It makes a deep lowing noise, and one black horn two cubits long projects from the middle of its forehead. This animal, they say, cannot be taken alive.”

Incorrect Definitions

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Described as an animal of great ferocity and strength (Numbers 23:22, R.V., "wild ox, " marg., "ox-antelope;24:8; Isaiah 34:7, R.V., "wild oxen"), and untamable (Job 39:9). It was in reality a two-horned animal; but the exact reference of the word so rendered (reem) is doubtful. Some have supposed it to be the buffalo; others, the white antelope, called by the Arabs rim. Most probably, however, the word denotes the Bos primigenius ("primitive ox"), which is now extinct all over the world. This was the auerochs of the Germans, and the urus described by Caesar (Galatians Bel., vi.28) as inhabiting the Hercynian forest. The word thus rendered has been found in an Assyrian inscription written over the wild ox or bison, which some also suppose to be the animal intended (Comp. Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalm 22:21; 29:6; 92:10).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

u'-ni-korn (re'em (Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8 Deuteronomy 33:17 Job 39:9, 10 Psalm 22:21; Psalm 29:6; Psalm 92:10 Isaiah 34:7)): "Unicorn" occurs in the King James Version in the passages cited, where the Revised Version (British and American) has "wild-ox" (which see).

Henry Morris
“The Hebrew word translated unicorn is believed by most Hebrew scholars to refer to the huge and fierce aurochs, or wild ox now extinct.”

W. L. Alexander (Pulpit Commentary)
“the reem is supposed to be the aurochs, an animal of the bovine species, allied to the buffalo, now extinct.”

Charles Spurgeon
“The unicorn may have been some gigantic ox or buffalo now unknown and perhaps extinct.”

William Houghon
“we think that there can be no doubt (how is that for certainty !) that some species of wild ox is intended.”

External Links

• Article about Unicorns by Will Kinney