שועל, Judges xv, 4; Nehemiah iv, 3; xi, 27; Psalm lxiii, 10; Cant.
ii, 15; Lam. v, 11; Ezek. xiii, 4; Matt. viii, 20; Luke ix, 58; xiii,
32. Parkhurst observes that this is the name of an animal, probably so
called from its burrowing, or making holes in the earth to hide himself
or dwell in. The LXX render it by ἀλώπηξ, the Vulgate, _vulpes_, and our
English version, _fox_. It is recorded, in Judges xv, 4, 5, that “Samson
went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned
tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails; and
when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing
corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the
standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.” Dr. Shaw thinks jackals
to be the animals here intended; observing, that “as these are creatures
by far the most common and familiar, as well as the most numerous of any
in the eastern countries, we may well perceive the great possibility
there was for Samson to take, or cause to be taken, three hundred of
them. The fox, properly so called,” he adds, “is rarely to be met with,
neither is it gregarious.” So Hasselquist remarks: “Jackals are found in
great numbers about Gaza; and, from their gregarious nature, it is much
more probable that Samson should have caught three hundred of them, than
of the solitary quadruped, the fox.”
2. At the feast of Ceres, the goddess of corn, celebrated annually at
Rome about the middle of April, there was the observance of this custom,
to fix burning torches to the tails of a number of foxes, and to let
them run through the circus till they were burnt to death. This was done
in revenge upon that species of animals, for having once burnt up the
fields of corn. The reason, indeed, assigned by Ovid, is too frivolous
an origin for so solemn a rite; and the time of its celebration, the
seventeenth of April, it seems, was not harvest time, when the fields
were covered with corn, _vestitos messibus agros_; for the middle of
April was seed time in Italy, as appears from Virgil’s Georgics. Hence
we must infer that this rite must have taken its rise from some other
event than that by which Ovid accounted for it; and Samson’s foxes are a
probable origin of it. The time agrees exactly, as may be collected from
several passages of Scripture. For instance: from the book of Exodus we
learn, that before the passover, that is, before the fourteenth day of
the month Abib, or March, barley in Egypt was in the ear, Exod. xii, 18;
xiii, 4. And in chapter ix, 31, 32, it is said, that the wheat at that
time was not grown up. Barley harvest, then, in Egypt, and so in the
country of the Philistines, which bordered upon it, must have fallen
about the middle of March. Wheat harvest, according to Pliny, was a
month later: “_In Egypto hordeum sexto a satu mense, frumenta septimo
metuntur._” [In Egypt barley is reaped in the sixth month from the time
of its being sown, wheat in the seventh.] Therefore wheat harvest
happened about the middle of April; the very time in which the burning
of foxes was observed at Rome. It is certain that the Romans borrowed
many of their rites and ceremonies, both serious and ludicrous, from
foreign nations; and Egypt and Phenicia furnished them with more perhaps
than any other country. From one of these the Romans might either
receive this rite immediately, or through the hands of their neighbours,
the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Phenicians; and so its true
origin may be referred back to the story which we have been considering.
Bochart has made it probable that the איים spoken of in Isaiah xiii, 22;
xxxiv, 14; and Jer. 1, 39, rendered by our translators “the beasts of
the islands,” an appellation very vague and indeterminate, are
_jackals_; and that the θωὲς of the Greeks, and the _beni ani_ of the
Arabians are the same animal; and though he takes that to have been
their specific name, yet he thinks, that, from their great resemblance
to a fox, they might be comprehended under the Hebrew name of a fox,
_shual_; which is indeed almost the same with _sciagal sciugal_, the
Persian names of the jackal. Scaliger and Olearius, quoted by Bochart,
expressly call the jackal a fox; and Mr. Sandys speaks of it in the same
manner: “The jackals, in my opinion, are no other than foxes, whereof an
infinite number,” &c. Hasselquist calls it the little eastern fox; and
Kæmpfer says that it might not be improperly called the wolf-fox. It is
therefore very conceivable that the ancients might comprehend this
animal under the general name of fox.
3. To give an idea of his own extreme poverty, the Lord Jesus says, Luke
ix, 58, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son
of man hath not where to lay his head.” And he calls Herod, the tetrarch
of Galilee, a fox, Luke xiii, 32; thereby signifying his craft, and the
refinements of his policy. In illustration of the pertinency of this
allusion, we may quote a remark of Busbequius: “I heard a mighty noise,
as if it had been of men who jeered and mocked us. I asked what was the
matter; and was answered, ‘Only the howlings of certain beasts which the
Turks call, _ciagals_, or _jackals_.’ They are a sort of wolves,
somewhat bigger than foxes, but less than common wolves, yet as greedy
and devouring. They go in flocks, and seldom hurt man or beast; but get
their food more by craft and stealth than by open force. Thence it is
that the Turks call subtle and crafty persons by the metaphorical name
of _ciagals_.”
ii, 15; Lam. v, 11; Ezek. xiii, 4; Matt. viii, 20; Luke ix, 58; xiii,
32. Parkhurst observes that this is the name of an animal, probably so
called from its burrowing, or making holes in the earth to hide himself
or dwell in. The LXX render it by ἀλώπηξ, the Vulgate, _vulpes_, and our
English version, _fox_. It is recorded, in Judges xv, 4, 5, that “Samson
went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned
tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails; and
when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing
corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the
standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.” Dr. Shaw thinks jackals
to be the animals here intended; observing, that “as these are creatures
by far the most common and familiar, as well as the most numerous of any
in the eastern countries, we may well perceive the great possibility
there was for Samson to take, or cause to be taken, three hundred of
them. The fox, properly so called,” he adds, “is rarely to be met with,
neither is it gregarious.” So Hasselquist remarks: “Jackals are found in
great numbers about Gaza; and, from their gregarious nature, it is much
more probable that Samson should have caught three hundred of them, than
of the solitary quadruped, the fox.”
2. At the feast of Ceres, the goddess of corn, celebrated annually at
Rome about the middle of April, there was the observance of this custom,
to fix burning torches to the tails of a number of foxes, and to let
them run through the circus till they were burnt to death. This was done
in revenge upon that species of animals, for having once burnt up the
fields of corn. The reason, indeed, assigned by Ovid, is too frivolous
an origin for so solemn a rite; and the time of its celebration, the
seventeenth of April, it seems, was not harvest time, when the fields
were covered with corn, _vestitos messibus agros_; for the middle of
April was seed time in Italy, as appears from Virgil’s Georgics. Hence
we must infer that this rite must have taken its rise from some other
event than that by which Ovid accounted for it; and Samson’s foxes are a
probable origin of it. The time agrees exactly, as may be collected from
several passages of Scripture. For instance: from the book of Exodus we
learn, that before the passover, that is, before the fourteenth day of
the month Abib, or March, barley in Egypt was in the ear, Exod. xii, 18;
xiii, 4. And in chapter ix, 31, 32, it is said, that the wheat at that
time was not grown up. Barley harvest, then, in Egypt, and so in the
country of the Philistines, which bordered upon it, must have fallen
about the middle of March. Wheat harvest, according to Pliny, was a
month later: “_In Egypto hordeum sexto a satu mense, frumenta septimo
metuntur._” [In Egypt barley is reaped in the sixth month from the time
of its being sown, wheat in the seventh.] Therefore wheat harvest
happened about the middle of April; the very time in which the burning
of foxes was observed at Rome. It is certain that the Romans borrowed
many of their rites and ceremonies, both serious and ludicrous, from
foreign nations; and Egypt and Phenicia furnished them with more perhaps
than any other country. From one of these the Romans might either
receive this rite immediately, or through the hands of their neighbours,
the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Phenicians; and so its true
origin may be referred back to the story which we have been considering.
Bochart has made it probable that the איים spoken of in Isaiah xiii, 22;
xxxiv, 14; and Jer. 1, 39, rendered by our translators “the beasts of
the islands,” an appellation very vague and indeterminate, are
_jackals_; and that the θωὲς of the Greeks, and the _beni ani_ of the
Arabians are the same animal; and though he takes that to have been
their specific name, yet he thinks, that, from their great resemblance
to a fox, they might be comprehended under the Hebrew name of a fox,
_shual_; which is indeed almost the same with _sciagal sciugal_, the
Persian names of the jackal. Scaliger and Olearius, quoted by Bochart,
expressly call the jackal a fox; and Mr. Sandys speaks of it in the same
manner: “The jackals, in my opinion, are no other than foxes, whereof an
infinite number,” &c. Hasselquist calls it the little eastern fox; and
Kæmpfer says that it might not be improperly called the wolf-fox. It is
therefore very conceivable that the ancients might comprehend this
animal under the general name of fox.
3. To give an idea of his own extreme poverty, the Lord Jesus says, Luke
ix, 58, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son
of man hath not where to lay his head.” And he calls Herod, the tetrarch
of Galilee, a fox, Luke xiii, 32; thereby signifying his craft, and the
refinements of his policy. In illustration of the pertinency of this
allusion, we may quote a remark of Busbequius: “I heard a mighty noise,
as if it had been of men who jeered and mocked us. I asked what was the
matter; and was answered, ‘Only the howlings of certain beasts which the
Turks call, _ciagals_, or _jackals_.’ They are a sort of wolves,
somewhat bigger than foxes, but less than common wolves, yet as greedy
and devouring. They go in flocks, and seldom hurt man or beast; but get
their food more by craft and stealth than by open force. Thence it is
that the Turks call subtle and crafty persons by the metaphorical name
of _ciagals_.”