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Bible Lexicons
Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's #7777 - שׁוּעָל
- Brown-Driver-Briggs
- Strong
Shual = “jackal”
1) as Asherite, son of Zophah (noun proper masculine)
2) a district in Benjamin probably north of Michmash (noun proper locative)
- Book
- Word
III. שׁוּעָל
proper name, masculine in Asher; — 1 Chronicles 7:36, Σουλα, A Σουαλ, ᵐ5 L Σουαν.
שׁוּעָל m.
(1) a fox, Song of Solomon 2:15; Lamentations 5:18; Ezekiel 13:4 Neh. 3:35. (Arab. ثُعَالَةُ, but more frequently ثَعْلَبُ, with the addition of the letter ب, compare pr.n. שַׁעַלְבִּים, also שַׁעֲלִים. As to the origin, Bochart, loc. cit., supposes the fox to be so called from a word, signifying to cough, which he refers to its yelping, comparing سَعَلَ to cough. However, I have little doubt that a fox has this name from the pit and underground hole where it dwells, from the root שָׁעַל, and that שׁוּעָלּ prop. denotes excavator, burrower, compare שָׁאַל No. II.) The name of foxes appears to have been commonly used as also including jackals (Pers. شغل Shagal), by the Hebrews, like the other orientals (compare Niebuhr’s Beschreib. von Arabien, page 166); and these are apparently the animals intended, Judges 15:4 (as foxes are not easily caught alive) and Psalms 63:11 (since foxes do not devour dead bodies, which jackals do). See Bochart, Hieroz. t. ii. p. 190, seq. ed. Lips.; Faber on Harmer’s Observations, vol. ii. p. 270. Also his Archæol. t. i. p. 140; Rosenm. Alterthumsk. iv 2, 154.
(2) [Shual], pr.n.
(a) אֶרֶץ שׁוּעָל a district in the tribe of Benjamin, 1 Samuel 13:17.
(b) m. 1 Chronicles 7:36.
