Bible Encyclopedias
Hare

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(אִרְנֶבֶת, arne'beth'; according to Bochart [Hieroz. i, 994], from אָרָה, to crop, and נַיב fruit; Arab. arneb and Syr. arnebo, a hare; Sept. χοιρογρύλλιος and δασύπους, Vulg. lepus and cheerogryllus, both versions interchanging it with "coney") occurs in Leviticus 11:6, and Deuteronomy 14:7, and in both instances it is prohibited from being used as food because it chews the cud, although it has not the hoof divided. But the hare belongs to an order of mammals totally distinct from the ruminantia, which are all, without exception, bisulca, the camel's hoof alone offering a partial modification (Ehrenberg, Mammalia, pt. 2). The stomach of rodents is single, and the motion of the mouth, excepting when they masticate some small portion of food reserved in the hollow of the cheek, is more that of the lips, when in a state of repose the animals are engaged in working the incisor teeth upon each other. This practice is a necessary condition of existence, for the e friction keeps them fit for the purpose of nibbling, and prevents their growing beyond a proper length. As hares do not subsist on hard substances, like most of the genera of the order, but on tender shoots and grasses, they have more cause, and therefore a more constant craving, to abrade their teeth; and this they do in a. manner which, combined with the slight trituration of the occasional contents of the cheeks, even modern writers, not zoologists, have mistaken for real rumination.

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