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Bible Encyclopedias
Ass
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (properly חֲמוֹר, chamor', from the reddish dun color of the hair of the wild ass; female אָתוֹן, athon'; Gr. ὄνος ),
(I.) a domestic animal (Genesis 12:16; Genesis 24:35; Genesis 30:43; Genesis 32:5; Joshua 6:21; Joshua 7:24; comp. Exodus 20:17; Exodus 22:4; Exodus 23:4 sq.; 1 Samuel 8:16; Luke 13:15; Luke 14:5), found generally in the East (comp. 1 Chronicles 27:30; for Mosaic precepts respecting the animal, see Exodus 20:17; Exodus 21:33; Exodus 22:10; Exodus 23:4 sq.; Deuteronomy 22:3 sq.; comp. Mishna, Baba Mtez. 6:3; Baba Bathra, v, 2), and very serviceable (particularly in the cultivation of the soil, Varro, R. R. ii, 6; Pallad. 18:14), although not to be compared with the modern ass of northern countries, but by far more stately (Olear. Trav. p. 301, estimates a Persian ass to be worth nearly $100; comp. Plin. 8:68; see Hasselquist, Tray. p. 67), more active, more mettlesome, and quicker (according to Niebuhr, Reisen, i, 311, an ass of ordinary speed will go over 1750 double paces of a man in half an hour: comp. Abdallatif, Denkw. p. 1375; Sonini, ii, 89 sq.). Asses were therefore (as still) held in great estimation; so that while with us the word ass is a low term of contempt, with the Orientals anciently as now the very opposite was the case (Genesis 49:14; comp. Iliad, 11:588 sq.; see D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Or. s.v. Hamar; Freytag, Ad select. ex histor. Halebi, p. 59; Gessner, in the Commentar. Soc. Gott. ii, 32 sq.; Jablonski, Panth. DEg. iii, 45; Michaelis, in the Commentar. Soc. Gott. 4:6 sq.).
The ass (perhaps the young ass, Job 1:3; Numbers 22:21; 2 Kings 4:24; Matthew 21:2 sq.) was, on account of his sure step over hilly tracts, the usual animal for riding (Exodus 4:20; Numbers 22:21; Judges 10:4; Judges 12:14; 1 Kings 2:40; 1 Kings 13:27; 2 Samuel 19:26), even for ladies (Joshua 15:18; Judges 1:14; 1 Samuel 25:23; 2 Kings 4:22; 2 Kings 4:24; comp. Fabric. Cod. Apogr. i, 104; see Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 44; Schwei- ger,'Reisen, p. 272; Rosenmuller, Morgenl. iii, 222) and nobles (2 Samuel 17:23; 1 Kings 13:13; 1 Kings 13:23; Zechariah 9:9; comp. Matthew 21:2 sq. [see Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in loc. p. 408; Schottgen, i, 169 sq.]; Mark 11:1 sq.; Luke 19:29 sq.; John 12:14 sq.; see Russel, Aleppo, ii, 49; Pococke, East, i, 309). The last preferred dappled asses, i.e. such as had a brownish-red skin marked with white streaks (Judges 5:10; comp. Morier, Trav. p. 136; Paulus, Samil. i, 244). No saddle, however, was used from the earliest time (Hasselquist, Trav. p. 66), but simply a covering consisting of a piece of cloth or a cushion (hence חֲמֹר חָבוּשׁ, a bound or girt ass, means a beast saddled and bridled, Genesis 21:3; Numbers 22:21; Judges 19:10), so that the driver (Judges 19:3; 2 Kings 4:24; Talm. חִמָּר, chammar', Mishna, Erub. 4:10, etc.) ran beside or behind the rider (Hasselquist, Trav. p. 66).
The ass, moreover, was not only employed for bearing burdens (Nehemiah 13:15; Joshua 9:4; 1 Samuel 16:20; 1 Samuel 25:18), but even for distant journeys (Genesis 43:26; Genesis 44:3; Genesis 44:13; Genesis 45:23; comp. Josephus, Life, 24; Mishna. Parah, 12:9), and also for drawing the plough (Deuteronomy 22:10; comp. Exodus 23:12; Isaiah 30:24; Isaiah 32:20; so, too, among the Romans, Plin. 8:68; 17:3; Varro, R. R. ii, 6; Colum. 7:1) and in mills (Matthew 18:6; Luke 17:2; "asinus molarius," Colum. 7:2; חמור הריחיים, Buxtorf, Floril. Hebr. p. 308; comp. Brouckhus, ad Tibull. ii, 1, 8). In war they carried the baggage (2 Kings 7:7; comp. Polluc. Onom. i, 10); but, according to Isaiah 21:7, the Persian king Cyrus had cavalry mounted on asses; and not only Strabo (xv, 726) assures us that the Caramanians, a people forming part of the Persian empire, rode on asses ina battle, but Herodotus (iv, 129) expressly states that Darius Hystaspis made use of the ass in a fight with the Scythians (comp. Allian, Anim. 12:32). See, generally, Bochart, Hieroz. i, 148 sq.; ii, 214 sq.; Lengerke, Kenaan, i, 140 sq., 146, 165.-Winer,i, 346.
The domestic ass, being an animal of a patient, laborious, and stupid nature, the emblem of persons of a similar disposition. Issachar is called a strong ass (Genesis 49:14), in reference to his descendants, as being a settled agricultural tribe, who cultivated their own territory with patient labor, emblematized by the ass. We rarely read of Issachar being engaged in any war, which is ever hostile to agriculture. Of Jehoiakim it is said, in Jeremiah 22:19, " With the burial of an ass shall he be buried, dragged along, and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem;" an event mentioned by Josephus, who says that "the king of Babylon advanced with an army, that Jehoiakim admitted him readily into Jerusalem, and that Nebuchadnezzar, having entered the city, instantly put him to death, and cast his dead body unburied without the walls." It is recorded of Christ in Zechariah 9:9, and quoted thence in Matthew 21:5, that he should be "humble, and sitting on an ass, even on a colt the foal of an ass." As horses were used in war, Christ may be supposed, by this action, to have shown the humble and peaceable nature of his kingdom. On the contrary, Ephraim is compared to a wild ass, in Hosea 8:9, i.e. he was untamed to the yoke, and traversed the desert as earnestly in the pursuit of idols as the onager in quest of his mates.
In the gospels is mentioned the, μύλος ἰνικός (Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:41), to express a large mill-stone, turned by asses, heavier than that turned by women or by slaves. See Jahn's Archceol. § 118, 189.
(II.) The ass is the Equus Asinus of Linnaeus; Some formed into a sub- genus, containing that group of the Equidae which are not striped like zebras, and have forms and characters distinguishable from true horses, such as a peculiar shape of body and limbs, long ears, an upright mane, a tail only tufted at the end, a streak along the spine, often crossed with another on the shoulders, a braying voice, etc. To designate these animals the Hebrews used various terms, by which, no doubt, though not with the strict precision of science, different species and distinct races of the group, as well as qualities of sex and age, were indicated; but the contexts in general afford only slight assistance in discriminating them; and reliance on cognate languages is often unavailing, since we find that similar words frequently point to secondary and not to identical acceptations. The name is assigned by the' Auth. Vers. to several distinct Heb. words, viz. אָתוֹן, חֲמוֹר, עִיִר, עָרוֹד, and פֶּרֶא, and the Greek words. It occurs also in two passages of Sirach 13:19; Sirach 33:24, in the first of which it stands for ovaypog. (See HE-ASS); (See SHE-ASS); (See FOAL).
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