חזיר, Lev. xi, 7; Deut. xiv, 8; Psalm lxxx, 13; Prov. xi, 22;
Isaiah lxv, 4; lxvi, 3, 17; χοῖρος, Matt. vii, 6; viii, 30; Mark v, 14;
Luke viii, 33; xv, 15; the plural of hog, an animal well known. In
impurity and grossness of manners, this creature stands almost
unrivalled among the order of quadrupeds; and the meanness of his
appearance corresponds to the grossness of his manners. He has a most
indiscriminate, voracious, and insatiable appetite. The Prophet Isaiah,
lxv, 4, charges his degenerate people with eating swine’s flesh, and
having broth of abominable things in their vessels, Isaiah lxvi, 3.
Conduct so contrary to their solemn engagements, so hateful in the sight
of the Holy One, though long endured, was not always to pass with
impunity. “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the
gardens, behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the
abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord,”
Isaiah lxvi, 17. Such a sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord,
because the eating of the blood was prohibited, and because the
sacrifice consisted of swine’s flesh. To these precepts and
threatenings, which were often enforced by severe judgments may be
traced the habitual and unconquerable aversion of the latter Jews to the
use of swine’s flesh; an aversion which the most alluring promises and
the most cruel sufferings have been found alike insufficient to subdue.
In such detestation was the hog held by the Jews that they would not so
much as pronounce its name, but called it “the strange thing;” and we
read in the history of the Maccabees, that Eleazer, a principal scribe,
being compelled by Antiochus Epiphanes to open his mouth and receive
swine’s flesh, spit it forth, and went of his own accord to the torment,
choosing rather to suffer death than to break the law of God, and give
offence to his nation, 2 Mac. vi, 18; vii, 1. It is observed that when
Adrian rebuilt Jerusalem, he set up the image of a hog, in bas-relief,
upon the gates of the city, to drive the Jews away from it, and to
express the greater contempt for that miserable people. It was avarice,
a contempt of the law of Moses, and a design to supply the neighbouring
idolaters with victims, that caused whole herds of swine to be fed on
the borders of Galilee. Whence the reason is plain of Christ’s
permitting the devils to throw the swine headlong into the lake of
Genesareth, Matthew viii, 32. We read, in Matthew vii, 6, “Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
There is a similar maxim in the Talmudical writings: “Do not cast pearls
before swine;” to which is added, by way of explanation, “Do not offer
wisdom to one who knows not the value of it, but profanes its glory.”
Isaiah lxv, 4; lxvi, 3, 17; χοῖρος, Matt. vii, 6; viii, 30; Mark v, 14;
Luke viii, 33; xv, 15; the plural of hog, an animal well known. In
impurity and grossness of manners, this creature stands almost
unrivalled among the order of quadrupeds; and the meanness of his
appearance corresponds to the grossness of his manners. He has a most
indiscriminate, voracious, and insatiable appetite. The Prophet Isaiah,
lxv, 4, charges his degenerate people with eating swine’s flesh, and
having broth of abominable things in their vessels, Isaiah lxvi, 3.
Conduct so contrary to their solemn engagements, so hateful in the sight
of the Holy One, though long endured, was not always to pass with
impunity. “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the
gardens, behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the
abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord,”
Isaiah lxvi, 17. Such a sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord,
because the eating of the blood was prohibited, and because the
sacrifice consisted of swine’s flesh. To these precepts and
threatenings, which were often enforced by severe judgments may be
traced the habitual and unconquerable aversion of the latter Jews to the
use of swine’s flesh; an aversion which the most alluring promises and
the most cruel sufferings have been found alike insufficient to subdue.
In such detestation was the hog held by the Jews that they would not so
much as pronounce its name, but called it “the strange thing;” and we
read in the history of the Maccabees, that Eleazer, a principal scribe,
being compelled by Antiochus Epiphanes to open his mouth and receive
swine’s flesh, spit it forth, and went of his own accord to the torment,
choosing rather to suffer death than to break the law of God, and give
offence to his nation, 2 Mac. vi, 18; vii, 1. It is observed that when
Adrian rebuilt Jerusalem, he set up the image of a hog, in bas-relief,
upon the gates of the city, to drive the Jews away from it, and to
express the greater contempt for that miserable people. It was avarice,
a contempt of the law of Moses, and a design to supply the neighbouring
idolaters with victims, that caused whole herds of swine to be fed on
the borders of Galilee. Whence the reason is plain of Christ’s
permitting the devils to throw the swine headlong into the lake of
Genesareth, Matthew viii, 32. We read, in Matthew vii, 6, “Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
There is a similar maxim in the Talmudical writings: “Do not cast pearls
before swine;” to which is added, by way of explanation, “Do not offer
wisdom to one who knows not the value of it, but profanes its glory.”