Hebrew word · H768
אַרְנֶבֶת
ha'arnevet
hare
The hare. Related words with the same meaning appear in Akkadian (arnabu) and Arabic ('arnab). In the region these are the cape or brown hare (Lepus capensis / europaeus syriacus).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) hare
1a) probably an extinct animal because no known hare chews its cud, exact meaning is unknown, and best left untranslated as "arnebeth"
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Deuteronomy 14:7
- Range of meaning
The hare. Related words with the same meaning appear in Akkadian (arnabu) and Arabic ('arnab). In the region these are the cape or brown hare (Lepus capensis / europaeus syriacus).
- Against the English
KJV, ESV and WEB have 'hare,' which is accurate. BSB and NIV have 'rabbit.' Rabbits (Oryctolagus) were not native to the Levant. The difference is small, but 'hare' keeps the picture of a wild animal that was hunted.
- How it drifted
In everyday English 'rabbit' and 'hare' are used loosely for the same animal.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint uses δασύπους, 'hairy-foot,' not the usual Greek λαγώς. The Talmud (b. Megillah 9b) says the translators did this so as not to offend King Ptolemy, whose family line came from a Lagos. Lev 11:6 is the parallel.
Where it appears
Leviticus · 1
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Leviticus 11:6 הָאַרְנֶ֗בֶת the hare
The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you.
Deuteronomy · 1
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Deuteronomy 14:7 הָאַרְנֶ֨בֶת the hare
But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you,
Here: The hare, a wild animal of the fields and steppe that people hunted for food. The European rabbit was not native to the region.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.