Word | American Tract Society - Definition |
LEOPARD | A fierce wild beast of the feline genus, beautifully spotted with a diversity of colors; it has small eyes, wide jaws, sharp teeth, round ears, a large tail; five claws on the fore feet, and four on those behind. It is swift, craft, and cruel; dangerous to all domestic cattle, and even to man, Jer 5:6 13:23 Da 10:6 Ho 13:7 Hab 1:8. Its name, leopard, implies that it has something of the lion and of the panther in its nature. It seems from Scripture that the leopard could not be rare in Palestine. Its Hebrew name occurs significantly in several names of places; as Beth-nimrah, the haunt of leopards, Nu 32:36. So in Nimrah, Nimrim, and perhaps Nimrod the mighty hunter. Isaiah, describing the happy reign of the Messiah, says, Isa 11:6, "The leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together." The spouse in the Canticles speaks of the mountains of the leopards, So 4:8; that is to say, such as Lebanon and Hermon, where wild beasts dwelt. |