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Bible Dictionaries
Wolf
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or זאב , in Arabic, zeeb, Genesis 49:27; Isaiah 11:6; Isaiah 65:25; Jeremiah 5:6; Ezekiel 22:27; Zephaniah 3:3; Habakkuk 1:8; λυκος , Matthew 7:15; Matthew 10:16; Luke 10:3; John 10:12; Acts 20:29; Ecclesiastes 13:17. M. Mains derives it from the Arabic word zaab or daaba, "to frighten;" and hence, perhaps, the German word dieb, "a thief." The wolf is a fierce, strong, cunning, mischievous, and carnivorous quadruped; externally and internally so nearly resembling the dog, that they seem modelled alike, yet have a perfect antipathy to each other. The Scripture observes of the wolf, that it lives upon rapine; is violent, bloody, cruel, voracious, and greedy; goes abroad by night to seek its prey, and is a great enemy to flocks of sheep. Indeed, this animal is fierce without cause, kills without remorse, and by its indiscriminate slaughter seems to satisfy its malignity rather than its hunger. The wolf is weaker than the lion or the bear, and less courageous than the leopard; but he scarcely yields to them in cruelty and rapaciousness. His ravenous temper prompts him to destructive and sanguinary depredations; and these are perpetrated principally in the night. This circumstance is expressly mentioned in several passages of Scripture. "The great men have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds; wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them," Jeremiah 5:6 . The rapacious and cruel conduct of the princes of Israel is compared by Ezekiel 22:27 , to the mischievous inroads of the same animal: "Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy lives, to get dishonest gain;" and Zephaniah 3:3 , says, "Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves: they gnaw not the bones till the morrow." Instead of protecting the innocent and restraining the evil doer, or punishing him according to the demerit of his crimes, they delight in violence and oppression, in blood and rapine; and so insatiable is their cupidity, that, like the evening wolf, they destroy more than they are able to possess. The dispositions of the wolf to attack the weaker animals, especially those which are under the protection of man, is alluded to by our Saviour in the parable of the hireling shepherd: "The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the flock," Matthew 7:15 . And the Apostle Paul, in his address to the elders of Ephesus, gives the name of this insidious and cruel animal to the false teachers who disturbed the peace and perverted the faith of their people: "I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock," Acts 20:29 .
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Wolf'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/w/wolf.html. 1831-2.
