Hebrew word · H7776

שׁוּעָל

shu'al

fox

A wild canine: the fox (Vulpes vulpes, in Palestine also smaller desert foxes), and very probably also the golden jackal (Canis aureus). Ancient Hebrew did not sort animals the way modern zoology does, and šûʿāl may have covered both. Hebrew also has tan/tannîm, usually translated 'jackals'.

Appears 7 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) fox, a burrower

1a) fox

1b) perhaps also jackal

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 Lamentations 5:18

Range of meaning

A wild canine: the fox (Vulpes vulpes, in Palestine also smaller desert foxes), and very probably also the golden jackal (Canis aureus). Ancient Hebrew did not sort animals the way modern zoology does, and šûʿāl may have covered both. Hebrew also has tan/tannîm, usually translated 'jackals'.

Against the English

KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT and NASB say 'foxes'. NIV, ESV and NLT say 'jackals'. Both are defensible. 'Jackals' suits a pack animal that howls in ruins. 'Foxes' is the traditional gloss and matches the Greek (alōpekes) and Latin (vulpes).

How it drifted

Modern English pictures the fox as a sly, clever, almost charming animal from fables and children's books. In biblical poetry the šûʿāl is mainly an animal of the waste places that turns up where people have left and the ground has gone wild.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judg 15:4 (Samson's 300 šûʿālîm, often taken as jackals because jackals run in packs); Ezek 13:4 ('like foxes among ruins are your prophets'); Neh 3:35 [4:3 Eng.] (Tobiah's mockery: 'if a fox goes up on it, it would break down their stone wall'); Song 2:15; Ps 63:10 [63:11 Heb.] (the fallen become 'a portion for foxes', i.e. carrion). Aramaic treaty curses from Sefire (8th c. BCE) wish that a rebel city become a mound where the gazelle, the fox and other wild creatures live. The Talmud (Makkot 24b) tells of rabbis seeing a fox come out of the ruined Holy of Holies.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 15:4 שׁוּעָלִ֑ים foxes

    Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 4:3 שׁוּעָ֔ל a fox

    Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 63:10 שֻׁעָלִ֣ים foxes

    They will fall to the power of the sword; they will become a portion for foxes.

Song of Songs · 2

  1. Song of Songs 2:15 שֽׁוּעָלִ֔ים שֽׁוּעָלִ֥ים foxes

    Catch for us the foxes—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 5:18 שׁוּעָלִ֖ים foxes

    because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.

    Here: Wild animals that live in ruins and scavenge. Whether foxes or jackals, the picture is of creatures from the waste places now at home where priests once served and pilgrims sang.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 13:4 כְּשֻׁעָלִ֖ים like foxes

    Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.