92 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



sheep-folds, scratches up and undermines the thresholds of doors 

 where they are housed, enters furiously, and destroys all hefore he 

 begins to fix upon and carry off his prey. When these sallies do 

 not succeed, he returns to the thickest part of the forest, content co 

 pursue those smaller animals which, even when taken, afford him 

 but a scanty supply. He there goes regularly to work, follows by 

 the scent, opens to the view, still keeps following, hopeless him- 

 self of overtaking the prey, but expecting that some other wolf will 

 come in to his assistance, and is content to share the spoil. At last, 

 when his necessities are very urgent, he boldly faces certain de- 

 struction ; he attacks women and children, and sometimes ventures 

 even to fall upon men, becomes furious by his continual agitations, 

 and ends his life in madness. 



The scripture account of this animal corresponds precisely with 

 the description furnished by naturalists. His ignoble and rapacious 

 disposition is alluded to in the patriarch's character of the tribe of 

 Benjamin : 'Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in the morning he shall 

 devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil,* 

 Genesis xlix. 27. The whole history of the tribe shows the pro- 

 priety of this application. Possessing some courage, and much 

 ferocity, they were often embroiled in quarrels and petty warfare 

 with the neighboring tribes; and feelings of desperation, under cir- 

 cumstances which their own conduct had created, sometimes im- 

 Selled them to attempt and effect feats of extraordinary valor. See 

 udges xix. 20. 



The iniquitous and rapacious conduct of the rulers of Israel, in 

 the times of Ezekiel and Zephaniah, is most expressively described 

 by a reference to this animal. * Her princes in the midst thereof,' 

 says the former prophet, 'are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed 

 blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain,' ch. xxii. 27. 

 The latter prophet adds another circumstance, which materially 

 illustrates the character of the wolf: Her princes within her are 

 roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the 

 bones till the morrow,' ch. iii. 3. That is, * Instead of protecting 

 the innocent, and restraining the evil doer, or punishing him ac- 

 cording to the demerit of his crimes, they delight in violence and 

 oppression, in blood and rapine ; and so insatiable is their cupidity, 

 that, like the evening wolf, they destroy more than they are able 

 to possess: l they gnaw not the bones till the morrow ;' or, so much 

 do they delight in carnage, that they reserve the bones till next day, 

 for a sweet repast.' 



To its nocturnal wanderings and attacks, when it is more than 

 ordinarily fierce and sanguinary, Jeremiah alludes, in his threaten- 

 ings against the ungodly members of the Jewish Church: l Where- 

 fore a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them,' (ch. v. 6}j as does 

 also Habakkuk, in his terrible description of the Chaldean invasion : 

 * Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce 

 than the evening wolves,' ch. i. 8. 

 The morose and unsociable traits in the character of the wolf, 



