The only passage in the Apocrypha is a passing allusion in Baruch (vi.22), where it is said of the idols, that bats and birds shall sit on their bodies, and the cats also. That the word is rightly translated admits of no doubt, because it is the same that is employed by Herodotus in the passage already quoted.
Wood, J. G. 1827-1889. Bible Animals: Being a Description of Every Living Creature Mentioned In the Scriptures From the Ape to the Coral. New York: Charles Scribner, 1870, p. 38. I found the King James version of the Apocrypha verse Wood identifies above, but it's in the Epistle of Jeremiah, and I'll throw in a couple of extra verses for context:
19: They are as one of the beams of the temple, yet they say their hearts are gnawed upon by things creeping out of the earth; and when they eat them and their clothes, they feel it not.
20: Their faces are blacked through the smoke that cometh out of the temple.
21: Upon their bodies and heads sit bats, swallows, and birds, and the cats also.
Well of course they're going to sit on them. They're handy and not moving. But I guess that's the point.
20: Their faces are blacked through the smoke that cometh out of the temple.
21: Upon their bodies and heads sit bats, swallows, and birds, and the cats also.
Well of course they're going to sit on them. They're handy and not moving. But I guess that's the point.
2 comments:
That's a very interesting post! There must have been cats all over the place in Egypt, so I wonder if the Israelites had cats as companions.
They must have had SOME. After all, they can't have tarred all cats with the brush of "you are bad because my masters love you."
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