Bible Dictionaries
Wolf

Holman Bible Dictionary

The largest of wild carnivorous animals (Canis lupus; Canis pallipes ) that include dogs, foxes, and jackals. The wolf is known for its boldness and fierceness of attack. It often killed more than it could eat because the taste of blood put it into a frenzy. Shepherds knew the wolf as the greatest enemy of sheep. The wolf was well known in biblical days (John 10:12 ), yet nearly every reference to wolves is in a figurative sense (Genesis 49:27; Jeremiah 5:6; Ezekiel 22:27 ). Jesus used the figure of the false prophet as a wolf in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15 ). One of the signs of the messianic age is that the “wolf and the lamb shall feed together” (Isaiah 65:25 ). See Animals .