Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Deuteronomy 14:5
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
The hart, the roebuck, and the fallow deer, etc.] All of the deer kind, and very agreeable food; harts were very common in the land of Canaan and parts adjacent; Aelianus says f135 harts are bred in the great mountains in Syria, Amanus, Lebanon, and Carmel: the roebuck, or “dorcas”, from whence a good woman had her name, (<440936>Acts 9:36) is spoken of by Martial f136 as very delicious food, and so are fallow deer; the word “jachmur”, here used, having the signification of redness in it, may be used for that sort which are called red deer: it is observed that in the Arabic language it is used for an animal with two horns, living in the woods, not unlike an hart, but swifter than that; and it is asked, is it not the “aloe” or “elch” f137? and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois; the wild goat is reckoned by Pliny f138 among the half wild creatures in Africa; according to the philosopher f139 there are none but in Syria, on which Canaan bordered, and were very remarkable ones, having ears a span and nine inches long, and some reached to the ground. The Hebrew name for this creature is “akko”; and there is a fourfooted wild beast, by the Tartarians called “akkyk”, and by the Turks “akoim”, and which with the Scythians and Sarmatians are to be met with in flocks; it is between a hart and a ram, its body whitish, and the flesh exceeding sweet f140; it seems to be the same with the “tragelaphus”, of which there were in Arabia, as Diodorus Siculus f141 says; the next is the “pygarg”, which we so render from the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, or white buttocks, so called from the hinder part of it being white; a species of the eagle with a white tail is called a “pygarg”, but here a four footed animal is meant; and which is mentioned as such, along with hinds, does, and goats, by Herodotus f142, Aelian f143, and Pliny f144: it has its name “dishon”, in Hebrew, from its ash colour, and the “tragelaphus”, or goat deer, has part of its back ash coloured, and has ash coloured spots or streaks on its sides f145 : some take it to be the “strepsiceros”, a kind of buck or goat with writhed horns, which the Africans, as Pliny says f146, call “addaca”, which is thought by some to be a corruption of “al-dashen”, so Junius; the Targum of Jonathan takes it for the “unicorn” or “rhinoceros”; and the Talmudists say f147 that the unicorn, though it has but one horn, is free, i.e. lawful to be eaten: the “wild ox” was common in Arabia; Strabo f148 speaks of multitudes of wild oxen in some parts of Arabia, on the flesh of which and other animals the Arabians live; in the Septuagint version it is called the “oryx”, which is a creature that has but one horn, and divides the hoof f149, and so might be eaten; (see Gill on “<235120>Isaiah 51:20”), the last, the “chamois”, has a French name, and is a creature of the goat kind, from whose skin the chamois leather is made; in the figure of its body it seems to approach very much to the stag kind f150; perhaps it is the same with the “cemas” of Aelian f151, mentioned by him along with roebucks. Some take it to be the “tarandus”, of which Pliny says f152 it is of the size of an ox, has a head bigger than a hart, and not unlike it; its horns are branched, hoofs cloven, and is hairy like a bear. In the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan this is the “pygarg”; these several sorts of beasts were allowed to be eaten; the three first there is no difficulty about them, but the other seven it i…
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