The ox

(Isa. 1:3) — a well-known domestic animal of the ruminant kind, clean by the Law of Moses, strong, hardy, and very useful in agricultural labors; it once formed a very valuable article of wealth of the ancient patriarchs (Gen. 24:35; Job 1:3). Oxen were used for tilling the ground (Deut. 22:10; 1 Sam. 14:14; 1 Kings 19:19), for threshing grain (Deut. 25:4; Hos. 10:11), for transporting burdens (Num. 7:3; 1 Chron. 6:7 [as given]). Beef was used for food (Deut. 14:4), and oxen were also used for sacrifice.

In ox horns the Hebrews kept oil (1 Sam. 16:1–13; 1 Kings 1:39). When oxen were at work, it was forbidden to prevent them from plucking at ears of grain: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn,” it says in the Law of Moses (Deut. 25:4; 1 Cor. 9:9). In general, during agricultural labors, oxen were fed abundantly (Isa. 30:24). In the Gospel of Luke (14:19) we read of the testing of oxen — this is a task still performed in the East with great precision and ceremony to this day.

The expression of the prophet Jeremiah (31:18): “I was chastised, as an untrained bull,” requires no special explanation. The faithfulness and attachment of oxen to their master is pointed to by the prophet Isaiah, rebuking the Jews for their unfaithfulness to God: “the ox knoweth his owner”… and so on (Isa. 1:3). Reference to the ferocity of the fat bulls of Bashan is found in the Book of Psalms (Ps. 22 [21]:12 [13]). They also serve as an image, or symbol, of some powerful adversary or rival (Deut. 33:17).