Dictionaries :: Swine

Swine:

(Heb. hazir), regarded as the most unclean and the most abhorred of all animals (Lev 11:7; Isa 65:4; 66:3,17; Luk 15:15,16). A herd of swine were drowned in the Sea of Galilee (Luk 8:32,33). Spoken of figuratively in Mat 7:6 (see Pro 11:22). It is frequently mentioned as a wild animal, and is evidently the wild boar (Arab. khanzir), which is common among the marshes of the Jordan valley (Psa 80:13).

Swine:

swin (chazir; compare Arabic khinzir; hus, Septuagint and New Testament; compare Greek sus, and Latin sus; adjective hueios, as a substantive, the Septuagint; choiros, Septuagint and New Testament): In both ancient and modern times domestic swine have been little kept in Palestine, but wild swine are well known as inhabitants of the thickets of the Chuleh, the Jordan valley, the Dead Sea, and some of the mountains. The species is Susanna scrofa, the wild pig of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.

In the Old Testament the swine is mentioned in Le 11:7 and De 14:8 as an unclean animal: "And the swine, because he parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you." In Isa 65:4 and 66:3,17 the eating of swine's flesh and the offering of oblations of swine's blood are referred to as abominations. Septuagint also refers to swine in three passages where these animals are not mentioned in the Hebrew and EV. In 2Sa 17:8 where English Versions of the Bible has "as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field," Septuagint adds (translation) "and as a savage boar in the plain." In 1Ki 21:19 Septuagint 20:19), where English Versions of the Bible has "in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth," Septuagint has "where the swine and the dogs licked"; similarly in 1Ki 22:38. In 1 Macc 1:47 there is reference to a decree of Antiochus ordering the sacrifice of swine. In 2 Macc 6 and 7 there are accounts of the torture and death of Eleazar, an aged scribe, and of a mother and her seven sons for refusing to taste swine's flesh. Swine, the property of Gentiles, are mentioned in the account of the Gadarene demoniac (Mt 8:30,31,32; Mr 5:11,12,13,14,16; Lu 8:32,33), and in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lu 15:15,16).

Figurative: We find the following figurative references to swine:

"The boar out of the wood doth ravage it,

And the wild beasts of the field feed on it" (i.e. on the "vine out of Egypt") (Ps 80:13);

"As a ring of gold in a swine's snout,

So is a fair woman that is without discretion"

(Pr 11:22);

"The Carmonians (the King James Version Carmanians, perhaps of Kirman or Carmania, in Southwestern Persia) raging in wrath shall go forth as the wild boars of the wood"

(2 Esdras 15:30);

"The dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire"

(2Pe 2:22; compare Pr 26:11).

Written by Alfred Ely Day

Swine: Pigs.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before SWINE, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:6)

Swine: Definition Of

Pigs

Swine: Forbidden as Food

Lev 11:7; Deu 14:8

Swine: Used

For food,

Isa 65:4; 66:17;

for sacrifice,

Isa 66:3.

Swine: Wild Boar

Psa 80:13

Swine: Jewels in the Nose Of

Pro 11:22

Swine: Viciousness Of

Mat 7:6

Swine: Jesus Sends Demons into The

Mat 8:28-32; Mar 5:11-14; Luk 8:32, 33

Swine: Feeding Of

Luk 15:15, 16

Swine: Sow Returns to Her Wallowing

2Pe 2:22

Swine: When Wild Inhabited the Woods

Psa 80:13

Swine: Unclean and Not to Be Eaten

Lev 11:7,8

Swine: Described

Fierce and ungenerous

Mat 7:6

Filthy in its habits

2Pe 2:22

Destructive to agriculture

Psa 80:13

Swine: Fed upon Husks

Luk 15:16

Swine: Sacrificing Of, an Abomination

Isa 66:3

Swine: Kept in Large Herds

Mat 8:30

Swine: Herding of, considered as the greatest degradation to a Jew

Luk 15:15

Swine: The Gergesenes Punished for Having

Mat 8:31,32; Mar 5:11,14

Swine: The Ungodly Jews Condemned for Eating

Isa 65:4; 66:17

Swine: Illustrative Of

The wicked

Mat 7:6

Hypocrites

2Pe 2:22

Swine:

"a swine," is used in the plural, in the Synoptic Gospels only, Mat 7:6; 8:30-32; Mar 5:11-13, 16; Luk 8:32, 33; Luk 15:15, 16. It does not occur in the OT.

Swine:

(Heb. chazir.) The flesh of swine was forbidden as food by the Levitical law (Leviticus 11:7; 14:8) the abhorrence which the Jews as a nation had of it may be inferred from Isaiah 65:4 and 2 Maccabees 6:18-19. No other reason for the command to abstain from swine's flesh is given in the law of Moses beyond the general one which forbade any of the mammalia as food which did not literally fulfill the terms of the definition of a clean animal" viz,, that it was to be a cloven‐footed ruminant. It is, however, probable that dietetical considerations may have influenced Moses in his prohibition of swine's flesh: it is generally believed that its use in hot countries is liable to induce cutaneous disorders; hence in a people liable to leprosy the necessity for the observance of a strict rule. Although the Jews did not breed swine during the greater period of their existence as a nation there can be little doubt that the heathen nations of Palestine used the flesh as food. At the time of our Lord's ministry it would appear that the Jews occasionally violated the law of Moses with regard to swine's flesh. Whether "the herd of swine" into which the devils were allowed to enter (Matthew 8:32; Mark 5:13) were the property of the Jewish or of the Gentile inhabitants of Gadara does not appear from the sacred narrative. The wild boar of the wood (Psalm 80:13) is the common Sus scrofa which is frequently met with in the woody parts of Palestine, especially in Mount Tabor.