Boar

הזיר . The wild boar is considered as the parent stock of our domestic hog. He is smaller, but at the same time stronger and more undaunted, than the hog. In his own defence, he will turn on men or dogs; and scarcely shuns any denizen of the forests, in the haunts where he ranges. His colour is always an iron grey, inclining to black. His snout is longer than that of the common breed, and his ears are comparatively short. His tusks are very formidable, and all his habits are fierce and savage. It should seem, from the accounts of ancient authors, that the ravages of the wild boar were considered as more formidable than those of other savage animals. The conquest of the Erymanthian boar was one of the fated labours of Hercules; and the story of the Calydonian boar is one of the most beautiful in Ovid. The destructive ravages of these animals are mentioned in Psa 80:14. Dr. Pococke observed very large herds of wild boars on the side of Jordan, where it flows out of the sea of Tiberias; and saw several of them on the other side lying among the reeds by the sea. The wild boars of other countries delight in the like moist retreats. These shady marshes then, it should seem, are called in the Scripture, “woods;”

for it calls these animals, “the wild boars of the woods.”

Boar occurs in Lev 11:7; Deu 14:8; Psa 80:13; Pro 11:22; Isa 65:4; Isa 66:3; Isa 66:17.

The Hebrew, Egyptian, Arabian, Phoenician, and other neighboring nations abstained from hog’s flesh, and consequently, excepting in Egypt, and (at a later period) beyond the Sea of Galilee, no domesticated swine were reared. Although in Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia hogs were rarely domesticated, wild boars are often mentioned in the Scriptures, and they were frequent in the time of the Crusades. At present wild boars frequent the marshes of the Delta, and are not uncommon on Mount Carmel and in the valley of Ajalah. They are abundant about the sources of the Jordan, and lower down where the river enters the Dead Sea. The wild boar of the East, though commonly smaller than the old breeds of domestic swine, grows occasionally to a very large size. It is passive while unmolested, but vindictive and fierce when roused. It is doubtful whether the species is the same as that of Europe, for the farrow are not striped: most likely it is identical with the wild hog of India.

The wild boar is considered as the parent stock of the common hog. He is a furious and formidable animal. The tusks are larger and stronger than in the tame herds, the color is iron-grey, inclining to black. His snout is long, and his ears are short. At present wild boars frequent the marshes around the upper Jordan, and have been found on Mount Carmel, and in large herds near the sea of Tiberias. They were frequent in the time of the Crusades. Richard Coeur de Lion encountered one, ran him through with a lace, and while the animal was still endeavoring to gore his horse, leaped over him, and slew him with his sword. The destructive ravages of the animal are referred to in Psa 80:13 .\par

Boar. See Swine.

The flesh of "swine" (domestic) was forbidden food to Israel. Eating it was the token of apostasy under Antiochus Epiphanes’ persecution, and is mentioned among Judah’s provocations of Jehovah (Isa 65:4; Isa 66:17). E. of the sea of Galilee, some Gadarenes are mentioned as having a herd of 2,000. Probably they refrained themselves from the flesh, and compromised between conscience and covetousness by selling them to their neighbors the Gentiles. But they gained nothing by the compromise, for the whole herd perished in the wafters, in judicial retribution. The Lord of the land, peculiarly set apart as the Holy Land, finds it defiled with demons and unclean beasts. The demons beg leave not to be sent to the abyss of torment, but into the swine. With His leave they do so, and the swine rush down the steep and perish in the waters.

Instead of gratitude for the deliverance, the Gadarenes prefer their swine, though at the cost of the demons’ presence, to the Savior at the cost of sacrificing their swine; so they entreat Him to "depart out of their coasts," forgetting His word, "Woe to them when I depart from them" (Hos 9:12); a striking contrast to him who was delivered from the demons and who "prayed that he might be with Jesus (Mar 5:15-18). The lowest point of the prodigal’s degradation was when he was sent into the fields to feed swine (Luk 15:15). The sensual professor’s backsliding into "the pollutions of the world," after he has "escaped them through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior," is fitly compared to "the sow that was washed returning to her wallowing in the mire" (2Pe 2:20-22).

"As a jewel of gold (worn often by women as ’nose jewels,’ Isa 3:21) in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion" (Hebrew: taste, i.e. without moral perception of what is pure and impure) (Pro 11:22). The brutish stolidity of those who appreciate only what gratifies their own foul appetites disqualifies them for appreciating heavenly mysteries; to present these holy truths to them would be as unwise as to east pearls before swine, which would only trample them under foot (Mat 7:6).

The wild boar is mentioned once only (Psa 80:13). Its destroying a vineyard partly by eating the grapes, partly by trampling the vines under foot, is the image of the pagan world power’s ravaging of Israel, Jehovah’s choice vine, transplanted from Egypt into the Holy Land. Pococke saw large herds among the reeds of Jordan, where it flows into the sea of Galilee; and so it is sculptured on Assyrian monuments as among reeds. Its Hebrew name, chazir, is from a root to roll in the mud.

(חֲזַיר, chazii’, in Arabic chizron) occurs in Psa 80:13, the same word being rendered " swine" in every other instance: in Lev 11:7; Deu 14:8; Pro 11:22; Isa 65:4; Isa 66:3; Isa 66:17. The Hebrew, Egyptian, Arabian, Phoenician, and other neighboring nations abstained from hogs’ flesh, and consequently, excepting in Egypt and (at a later period) beyond the Sea of Galilee, no domesticated swine were reared. In Egypt, where swine-herds were treated as the lowest of men, even to a denial of admission into the temples, and where to have been touched by a swine defiled the person nearly as much as it did a Hebrew, it is difficult to conjecture for what purpose these animals were kept so abundantly as it appears by the monumental pictures they were; for the mere service of treading down seed in the deposited mud of the Nile when the inundation subsided, the only purpose alleged, cannot be admitted as a sufficient explanation of the fact. Although in Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia hogs were rarely domesticated, wild boars are often mentioned in the Scriptures, and they were frequent in the time of the Crusades; for Richard Coeur-de-Lion encountered one of vast size, ran it through with his lance, and, while the animal was still endeavoring to gore his horse, he leaped over its back, and slew it with his sword. At present wild boars frequent the marshes of the Delta, and are not uncommon on Mount Carmel and in the valley of Ajalah. They are abundant about the sources of the Jordan, and lower down, where the river enters the Dead Sea. The Koords and other wandering tribes of Mesopotamia, and on the banks of both the great rivers, hunt and eat the wild boar, and it may be suspected that the half human satyrs they pretend sometimes to kill in the chase derive their cloven-footed hind-quarters from wild boars, and offer a convenient mode of concealing from the women and public that the nutritive flesh they bring home is a luxury forbidden by their law.

The wild boar of the East, though commonly smaller than the old breeds of domestic swine, grows occasionally to a very large size. It is passive while unmolested, but vindictive and fierce when roused. The ears of the species are small, and rather rounded, the snout broad, the tusks very prominent, the tail distichous, and the color dark ashy, the ridge of the back bearing a profusion of long bristles. It is doubtful whether this species is the same as that of Europe, for the farrow are not striped; most likely it is identical with the wild hog of India. The wild boar roots up the ground in a different manner from the common hog; the one turns up the earth in little spots here and there, the other ploughs it up like a furrow, and does irreparable damage in the cultivated lands of the farmer, destroying the roots of the vine and other plants. "The chief abode of the wild boar," says Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, "is in the forests and jungles; but when the grain is nearly ripe, he commits great ravages in the fields and sugar plantations. The powers that subverted the Jewish nation are compared to the wild boar, and the wild beast of the field, by which the vine is wasted and devoured; and no figure could be more happily chosen (Psa 80:13). That ferocious and destructive animal, not satisfied with devouring the fruit, lacerates and breaks with his sharp tusks the -branches of the vine, or with his snout digs it up by the roots and tramples it under his feet." Dr. Pococke observed very large herds of wild boars on the side of the Jordan, where it flows out of the Sea of Tiberias, and several of them on the other side lying among the reeds of the sea. The wild boars of other countries delight in like moist retreats. These shady marshes, then, it would seem, are called in the Scripture "woods," for it calls these animals "the wild boars of the woods." This habit of lurking in reeds was known to the Assyrians, and sculptured on their monuments (see Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p.109). The Heb. חִזַירis from an unused root חָזִר(chazar’, to roll in the mire). The Sept. renders it σῦς or ῏υς, but in the N.T. χοῖρος is used for swine. SEE SWINE.

The well-known animal in its wild state. They are still found in Palestine, and dwell among the long reeds in the Jordan valley and marshy places. They are very destructive to cultivated land. Psa 80:13.

BOAR.—The wild boar (Arab. [Note: Arabic.] khanzir) is quite common in the Jordan Valley, specially in the reed thickets near the Dead Sea. It is also found on Mount Tabor. It is still noted for its destructiveness (Psa 80:18). Though a forbidden food to the Moslem as well as the Jew (Lev 11:7, Deu 14:8), the flesh is eaten by the nominally Moslem Bedouin of Palestine. See Swine.

E. W. G. Masterman.

bōr (חזיר, ḥăzı̄r): In lamenting the troubled state of the Jewish nation the Psalmist (Psa 80:13) says: “The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, and the wild beasts of the field feed on it,” with evident reference to Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians, etc. The wild boar is abundant in certain parts of Palestine and Syria, especially in the thickets which border the lakes and rivers, as about the Ḥūleh, the sea of Galilee, the Jordan, and in the deltas of streams flowing into the Dead Sea, as Ghaur-us-Ṣāfiyeh. Several fountains in Lebanon bear the name, ‛Ain-ul-Ḥazı̄r, though ḥazı̄r is not an Arabic word, khanzı̄r being the Arabic for “swine.” See SWINE.

See Swine