98 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE WILD BOAR. 



THIS animal, which is the original of all the varieties of the hog 

 kind, is by no means so stupid nor so filthy a beast as that we have 

 reduced to lameness. He is something smaller than the domestic 

 hog, and does not so vary in his color, being always found of an 

 iron grey, inclining to black : his snout is much larger than that of 

 the tatne animal, and the ears are shorter, rounder, and black ; of 

 which color are also the feet and the tail. But the tusks are larger 

 than in the tame breed ; they bend upwards circularly, and are ex- 

 ceedingly sharp at the points. 



The wild boar roots up the ground in a different manner from the 

 common hog ; the one turns up the earth in little spots here and 

 there ; the other ploughs it up like a furrow, and does irreparable 

 damage in the cultivated lands of the farmer, destroying the roots 

 of the vine and other plants. From this we may see the propriety 

 with which the Psalmist represents the subversion of the Jewish 

 commonwealth, under the allegory of a vine, destroyed by a boar : 

 ' Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt ; thou hast cast out the 

 heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst 

 cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. She sent out her 

 boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast 

 thou broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the 

 way do pluck her ? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and 

 the wild beast of the field doth devour it,' Psalm Ixxx. 8 -T3. If 

 this Psalm was written, as is supposed, during the Babylonian cap- 

 tivity, the propriety of the allegory becomes more apparent. Not 

 satisfied with devouring the plants and fruit which have been care- 

 fully raised by the skill and attention of the husbandman, the fero- 

 cious boar lacerates and breaks with his powerful tusks the roots 

 and branches of the surrounding vines, and tramples them beneath 

 his feet. The reader will easily apply this to the conduct pursued 

 by the Chaldeans towards the Jewish state, whose desolation is thus 

 pathetically bewailed by the prophet : ' The Lord hath trodden un- 

 der foot all my mighty men in the midst of me : he hath called an 

 assembly against me to crush my young men : the Lord hath trod- 

 den the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress,' Lam. i. 15, 



The boar is extremely fond of marshes, fens, and reedy places ; 

 a disposition which is probably referred to in Psalm Ixviii. 30 : Re- 

 buke the company of the spearmen.' or, as it is literally, ' the 

 beast of the reeds,' or canes. 



