(shu`al; compare Arabic tha`lab (Judges 15:4; Nehemiah 4:3; Psalms 63:10; Song of Solomon 2:15; Lamentations 5:18; Ezekiel 13:4); alopex (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58; 13:32)): The foxes of different parts of Europe and Western Asia differ more or less from each other, and some authors have given the local tyes distinct specific names. Tristram, for instance, distinguishes the Egyptian fox, Vulpes nilotica, of Southern Palestine, and the tawny fox, Vulpes flavescens, of the North and East It is possible that the range of the desert fox, Vulpes leucopus, of Southwestern Asia may also reach Syria. We have, however, the authority of the Royal Natural History for considering all these as merely local races of one species, the common fox, Vulpes alopex or Canis vulpes. The natives of Syria and Palestine do not always distinguish the fox and jackal although the two animals are markedly different. The jackal and wolf also are frequently confounded.

See DRAGON ; JACKAL .

In Psalms 63:9 f we have, "Those that seek my soul, to destroy it, .... shall be given over to the power of the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes" (shu`alim). It has been thought that the jackal is meant here (Revised Version margin), and that may well be, though it is also true that the fox does not refuse carrion. In the Revised Version, margin, "jackal" is suggested in two other passages, though why is not clear, since the rendering "fox" seems quite appropriate in both. They are Nehemiah 4:3, ".... if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall," and Lamentations 5:17 f, ".... our eyes are dim; for the mountain of Zion which is desolate: the foxes walk upon it." the Revised Version, margin also has "jackals" in Judges 15:4 f, where Samson "caught three hundred foxes .... and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails .... and let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the oliveyards." Jackals are probably more numerous than foxes, but the substitution does not appreciably diminish the difficulties in the way of any natural explanation of the story. In Song of Solomon 2:15 we have a reference to the fondness of the fox for grapes. In Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58 Jesus says in warning to a would-be follower, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Foxes differ from most of the Canidae in burrowing holes for their lairs, unless indeed they take possession of the burrow of another animal, such as the badger. In Luke 13:32 Jesus compares Herod to a fox.

Alfred Ely Day.

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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