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Bible Dictionaries
Cattle
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or 'Eleph (אֶלֶף, Strong's #504), “cattle; thousand; group.” The first word, “cattle,” signifies the domesticated animal or the herd animal. It has cognates in Aramaic, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Phoenician. It appears only 8 times in the Bible, first in Deut. 7:13: “He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine [NASB, “herd”], and the flocks of thy sheep.…”This noun is probably related to the verb 'alaph, “to get familiar with, teach, instruct.” This verb occurs 4 times, only in Job and Proverbs.
The related noun 'eleph usually means “familiar; confident.” It, too, occurs only in biblical poetry. In Ps. 144:14, 'alluph signifies a tame domesticated animal: “That our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out.…”
The second word, “thousand,” occurs about 490 times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew. It first appears in Gen. 20:16: “Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver …”
The third word, “group,” first occurs in Num. 1:16: “These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands [divisions] in Israel.” It appears to be related to the word 'elluph, “leader of a large group,” which is applied almost exclusively to non-lsraelite tribal leaders (exceptions: Zech. 9:7; 12:5-6). 'Alluph first occurs in Gen. 36:15: “These were [chiefs] of the sons of Esau.…”
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Cattle'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/c/cattle.html. 1940.
