Greyhound
Greyhound is the rendering given by our translators of זרזִיר (or rather זרזִיר מָתניִם, zarzir' mothna yim, girded as to the loins, as the marg. renders; Sept. ἀλέκτωρ ἐμεριπατῶν θηλείαις εὔψυχος, a cock strutting about proudly among his hens; Vulg. gallus suc-cinctus lumbos), given in Pr 30:31. as an instance of gracefulness in gait. Gesenius (Heb. Thes. p. 435) inclines to the opinion of Bochart (Hieroz. i, 103), Schultens (Comment. ad loc.), and others, that it denotes a war-horse, as ornamented with girths and buckles about the loins. This is a more noble comparison than the cock (with the Sept., Vulg., Aquilla, Theodo-tion, the Targums, the Syr. and Arab. versions, Joseph Kimchi, and others), the greyhound (with the Veneto-Greek, the other Kimchis, Gershon, Luther, and others), or other more fanciful conjectures, e.g. the eagle, the zebra, etc., which may be seen in Fuller (Miscell. Sacr. v, 12), Simonis (Exercitatio critica de זרזִיר, Hal. 1735), and others. Maurer, however (Comment. ad loc.), thinks a wrestler is intended as girded for a contest, and he refers to Buxtorf (Lex. Talm. col. 692) as confirming the signification of athlete thus assigned to zarzir. The hound was evidently known in ancient times, as appears from the Egyptian monuments. SEE DOG.
