Topic
Colt; Foal
4 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 32:15ISBE
Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
- Zechariah 9:9ISBE
¶ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
- Matthew 21:5ISBE
Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
- John 12:15ISBE
Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 4 references
kolt (`ayir, ben; polos, huios, with some word such as hupozugiou, understood; huios alone = "son"): The English words "colt" and "foal" are used in the Bible of the ass everywhere except in Ge 32:15, where the word "colt" is used of the camel in the list of animals destined by Jacob as presents for Esau. In most cases `ayir (compare Arabic `air, "ass") means "ass's colt," but it may be joined with ben, "son," as in Zec 9:9, where we have: `al-chamor we`al-`ayir ben-'athonoth, literally, "on an epi onon kai epi polon huion hupozugiou", "upon an ass, and upon a colt ass, and on an ass's colt, the son of the she-asses"; compare Mt 21:5 epi onon kai epi polon huion hupozugiou, "upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." In Joh 12:15 we have epi polon onou, and in the previous verse the diminutive, onarion. The commonest New Testament word for "colt" is polos, akin to which is German Fohle and English "foal" and "filly." The Latin pullus signifies either "foal" or "chicken," and in the latter sense gives rise to French poulet and English "pullet."
In view of the fact that horses are but little mehtioned in the Bible, and that only in connection with royal equipages and armies, it is not surprising that "colt" does not occur in its ordinary English sense.
Alfred Ely Day
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.