Today, there are many attacks against the Word of God, but I believe in the authority given to us. The Bible is not referring to the mythological unicorn, the horse-with-a-horn creature of fairy tales and fantasy literature. In my study of the unicorn, I am led to believe that it was a wild ox. I believe it was a real creature of great strength.

In Numbers 23:22 and 24:8, God compares His own strength to that of a wild ox. Deuteronomy 33:17 is a part of Moses, blessing on Joseph. He compares Joseph's majesty and strength to a firstborn bull. Moses prays for Joseph's military force, picturing it like a unicorn (wild ox) goring the nations.

In Psalm 22:21, David asks God to save him from the powers of his wicked enemies, described as "the horns of the unicorns." In Psalm 29:6, the power of God's voice shakes the earth, causes the great cedars of Lebanon to break and "skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn." In Psalm 92:10, the writer confidently describes his military victory as "the horn of an unicorn."

In Isaiah 34:7, as God is about to unleash his wrath upon Edom, the prophet Isaiah draws a picture of a great sacrificial slaughter, classifying the wild ox (unicorn) with the ceremonially clean animals that will fall to the sword.

In Job 39:9-12, Job compares the unicorn or wild ox--a standard symbol of strength in the Old Testament--with domesticated oxen. I believe the unicorn is now extinct throughout the world.

--Chester R. Owenby

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