Livestock, or Cattle
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 1:25)—in ordinary biblical usage, domestic four-footed animals such as oxen, horses, sheep, and goats. Herds and flocks formed a principal measure of wealth in the pastoral East. Job possessed thousands of sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys (Job 1:3), and livestock was frequently exchanged as a gift (Gen. 20:14; 21:27). Abraham and Lot had such numerous herds that the land could not sustain them together. The hill country and valleys of Judea provided abundant pasture, and owners often tended their animals personally rather than treating shepherding as beneath their rank.