Animals in the bible

[Classik]

There are lots of animals mentioned in the bible. Each animal played a significant role - and also signifying something.
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There are animals like lamb, sheep, lion, serpent, dog, dragon, horse, birds, camel, calf etc
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I want to compile something. Can anyone help with what each animal represented?
A big thank you.

 

[for_his_glory]

why not go through your Bible and read what each one represents as this will allow you to gain first hand knowledge instead of maybe ones own opinion. It's easy if you have a concordance and also fun looking up each one. Some are actual animals and some are animals being mentioned symbolically. Can't wait to read what you compile and blessings on your findings.

 

[Gazelle]

The gazelle is an antelope belonging to the bovine family of the even-toed ruminants. There are more than twenty species of gazelle, all belonging to Asia and Africa. The species found in Syria and Israel is the Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas). It is 2 ft. high at the shoulders. Both sexes have unbranched, lyrate, ringed horns, which may be a foot long. The general coloration is tawny, but it is creamy white below and on the rump, and has a narrow white line from above the eye to the nostril. Several varieties have been distinguished, but they will not bear elevation to the rank of species, except perhaps Gazelle merilli a form of which a few specimens have been obtained from the Judean hills, having distinctly different horns from those of the common gazelle. The gazelle is found singly or in small groups on the interior plains and the uplands, but not in the high mountains. It is a marvel of lightness and grace, and a herd, when alarmed, makes off with great rapidity over the roughest country (2 Sam 2:18; 1 Ch 12:8; Prov 6:5; Song 8:14). The beauty of the eyes is proverbial. The skin is used for floor coverings, pouches or shoes, and the flesh is eaten, though not highly esteemed.

The Gazelle is very common in Palestine in the present day, and, in the ancient times, must have been even more plentiful. Whatever variety may inhabit any given spot, they all have the same habits. They are gregarious animals, associating together in herds often of considerable size, and deriving from their numbers an element of strength which would otherwise be wanting. Against mankind, numbers are of no avail; but when the agile though feeble Gazelle has to defend itself against the predatory animals of its own land, it can only defend itself by the concerted action of the whole herd. Should, for example, the wolves prowl round a herd of Gazelles, after their treacherous wont, the Gazelles instantly assume a posture of self-defense They form themselves into a compact phalanx, all the males coming to the front, and the strongest and boldest taking on themselves the honorable duty of facing the foe. The does and the young are kept within their ranks, and so formidable is the array of sharp, menacing horns, that beasts as voracious as the wolf, and far more powerful, have been known to retire without attempting to charge.

As a rule, however, the Gazelle does riot desire to resist, and prefers its legs to its horns as a mode of insuring safety. So fleet is the animal, that it seems to fly over the ground as if propelled by volition alone, and its light, agile frame is so enduring, that a fair chase has hardly any prospect of success.

Prov. vi. 4, 5: "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler."

Allusion is made to the beauty of the Roe, or Gazelle, in a well-known name, Tabitha, which is, in fact, a slight corruption of the Hebrew Tsebiyah, and is translated into Greek as Dorcas, or Gazelle. "Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas (i.e. the Gazelle). This woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did."

As to the flesh of the Gazelle, or Roe, it is mentioned in Deut. xii. 15, xiv. 5, as one of the animals that affords lawful food; and the same permission is reiterated in xv. 22, with the proviso that the blood shall be poured out on the earth like water.
http://www.zoocreation.com/biblespecies/gazelle.html

 

[Classik]

why not go through your Bible and read what each one represents as this will allow you to gain first hand knowledge instead of maybe ones own opinion. It's easy if you have a concordance and also fun looking up each one. Some are actual animals and some are animals being mentioned symbolically. Can't wait to read what you compile and blessings on your findings.

Okay, thanks.
most of them are/were used in spiritual situations making it hard to understand :dunno

 

[Classik]

Thanks, Gazelle. That's a very great input. Superb!