Domestic Animals of the Bible. from 'Bible Animals'.

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1887. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE SHEEP. Importance of Sheep in the Bible--The Sheep the chief wealth of the pastoral tribes--Tenure of land--Value of good pasture-land--Arab shepherds of the present day--Difference between the shepherds of Palestine and England--Wanderings of the flocks in search of food--Value of the wells--How the Sheep are watered--Duties of the shepherd--The shepherd a kind of irregular soldier--His use of the sling--Sheep following their shepherd--Calling the Sheep by name--The shepherd usually a part owner of the flocks--Structure of the sheepfolds -- The rock caverns of Palestine -- David's adventure with Saul--Penning of the Sheep by night--Use of the dogs--Sheep sometimes brought up by hand--How Sheep are fattened in the Lebanon district--The two breeds of Sheep in Palestine --The broad-tailed Sheep, and its peculiarities--Reference to this peculiarity in the Bible--The Talmudical writers, and their directions to sheep-owners. We now come to a subject which will necessarily occupy us for some little time. There is, perhaps, no animal which occupies a larger space in the Scriptures than the Sheep. Whether in religious, civil, or domestic life, we find that the Sheep is bound up with the Jewish nation in a way that would seem almost incomprehensible, did we not recall the light which the New Testament throws upon the Old, and the many allusions to the coming Messiah under the figure of the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world. In treating of the Sheep, it will be perhaps advisable to begin the account by taking the animal simply as one of those creatures winch have been domesticated from time immemorial, dwelling slightly on those points on which the sheep-owners of the old days differed from those of our own time. In the first place, the tenure of l...