The Hebrew word ya-el appears three times in the Bible. In English translations it is usually translated as “wild goat,” and in some modern translations, as “mountain-goat.” In actuality, the Hebrew ya-el is the ibex (Capra ibex nubiana), one of the loveliest and most agile members of the cattle family.
Each Biblical reference to the ibex reflects how well our ancestors understood nature and how subtly they used this knowledge to give deeper meaning to the text.
In the book of Job when God wants to tell Job that there are some things that man is not intended to understand, He speaks to him “from out of a whirlwind” and asks, rhetorically, “Do you know when the ibexes give birth?” (Job 39:1).
This is one of nature’s secrets—certainly it was to our ancestors, although sighting an ibex is not uncommon. They live principally near cliffs in the desert. But the ibex is very private about both copulation and giving birth. After more than 30 years of intensive observations by Israel’s host of keen naturalists, the ibex has been observed copulating or giving birth in its natural habitat no more than four times (through November 1978).
This passage from Job is saying that there are some things which God deliberately hides from man: no one knows when the ibexes give birth.
Ya-el also appears in Psalm 104:18, a paean to God who provides: “The high hills [as] a refuge for the ibexes.” In four Hebrew words, the Biblical poet describes the essential ecological adaptation of the ibex. Today, the ibex lives at three principal sites in the Sinai and Israel: at Jebel Serbal in south Sinai, one of the main candidates for Mt. Sinai after the traditional mountain with that name (Jebel Serbal is 5000 to 6750 feet above sea level); at Ein Avdat in the Negev (1000 to 1300 feet above sea level); and at Ein Gedi in the Aravah rift in the Judean wilderness (Ein Gedi is about 1150 feet below sea level but nevertheless rises more than 1000 feet above the floor of the rift, which a few miles away at the Dead Sea, is the lowest 051spot on earth).
At each of these three sites, springs supply the ibexes with water, and high cliffs provide refuge where they can easily scramble to escape their less nimble predators.
The Hebrew and Arabic names for ibex both mean, literally, “to ascend,” and the ibex’s agility is indeed its trademark. Even the most skilled human rock climbers, the Bedouin poachers of the Ein Gedi area, cannot keep up with an ibex more than two days old. From birth, these creatures are shy and suspicious and instantly take flight when danger is near.
The third Biblical reference to the ibex is in a historical text. When David was hiding from King Saul, David went and “stayed in the wilderness of Ein Gedi. When Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told where David was. So Saul took 3000 picked men from all Israel and went in search of David and his men “toward the ibex cliffs” (1 Samuel 24:1–2).
It is easy to locate the ibex cliffs at Ein Gedi even today. The largest ibex herds in Israel still live in these cliffs. They graze on the abundant grasses that grow near the cool Ein Gedi springs, drink the fresh water, and find refuge in the high cliffs above.
When I see the ibexes, which are thriving today in Israel because of the stringent Nature Protection Laws, I think how accurately our ancestors observed this beautiful animal and used their observations to enrich the Biblical text.
The Hebrew word ya-el appears three times in the Bible. In English translations it is usually translated as “wild goat,” and in some modern translations, as “mountain-goat.” In actuality, the Hebrew ya-el is the ibex (Capra ibex nubiana), one of the loveliest and most agile members of the cattle family. Each Biblical reference to the ibex reflects how well our ancestors understood nature and how subtly they used this knowledge to give deeper meaning to the text. In the book of Job when God wants to tell Job that there are some things that man is not intended to […]
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