IBEX

IBEX (Heb. ?????, ya'el; av, jps "wild goat"), the wild goat Capra ibex nubiana, a wild animal permitted for food. Only the ibex and the gazelle have survived from over ten species of cloven-hoofed ruminants which inhabited Ere? Israel in former times. Because of its tasty meat, the ibex was much sought after by hunters but escaped extinction through its ability to exist on precipitous mountains in desert regions, such as En-Gedi, Elath, and the Negev heights. Able to jump from rocks and to climb steep rock faces, it was called ya'el in Hebrew (and wa?l in Arabic), a word derived from the root meaning "to ascend." The "rocks of the ibex" in the neighborhood of En-Gedi have served as a hiding place at various times. David fled there from Saul (i Sam. 24:1–3) and Bar Kokhba's fighters took refuge in the caves.

Ibex live in herds. The male has horns reaching up to 39 in. (one meter) in height, the female short, sharp ones. The beauty of the ibex and the remarkable way it lives among the rocks of the desert have been used as poetic motifs (Job 39:1; Ps. 104:18); the name ya'alat ?en (a graceful female ibex) is given to a beautiful woman (Prov. 5:19). Jael (Judg. 4:17) and Jaalah (Ezra 2:56), both derived from the Hebrew for ibex, occur in the Bible as women's names. A shofar made of the long horn of an ibex was blown in the Temple on the New Year (rh 3:3) and to proclaim the Jubilee year (rh 3:5).

bibliography:

I. Aharoni, Torat ha-?ai, 1 (1923), 85; F.S. Bodenheimer, Animal Life in Palestine (1935), 112. add bibliography: Feliks, Ha-?ome'a?, 239.

[Jehuda Feliks]