True story.

The word occurs 9 times in the Old Testament (King James Version):

Numbers 23:22 – God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Numbers 24:8 – God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. Deuteronomy 33:17 – His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. Job 39:9 – Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Job 39:10 – Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Psalm 22:21 – Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Psalm 29:6 – He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. Psalm 92:10 – But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Isaiah 34:7 – And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

Fascinating, right? So what does one make of this?

The Hebrew words is translated as “unicorn” or “wild ox” in Job 39:9 is reym. Dictionary form is re’em. In Greek it’s monokeros, or “one-horned.”

So why would KJV translations choose unicorn over rhinoceros? Apparently they didn’t know that unicorns were, in fact, mythical. Since 1382 the translations were consistently unicorn. Most simply the translations were being influence more by tradition and ancient versions rather than a study of the Hebrew word itself.

But context is everything. In Job 39:9 the reference to a “furrow” suggests that an animal used to plow was in the vicinity and that isn’t a rhino.

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