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GoadAid to Bible Understanding
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metal points) fixed fast.—Judg. 3:31; 1 Sam. 13:19-21.
The goad is compared to the words of a wise person, words that move the listener to advance in harmony with the wisdom heard. (Eccl. 12:11) The figurative expression “kicking against the goads” is drawn from the action of a stubborn bull that resists the prickings of the goad by kicking against it, resulting in injury to himself. The expression, therefore, denotes resisting or rebelling against rightful authority or a condition that cannot be altered, doing so to one’s own injury. This is exactly what Paul did before becoming a Christian, by fighting against the followers of Jesus Christ, who had the backing of Jehovah God.—Acts 26:14; compare Acts 5:38, 39.
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GoahAid to Bible Understanding
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GOAH
(Goʹah).
A site, now unknown, named with the hill of Gareb in Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning the rebuilding and extending of Jerusalem.—Jer. 31:38, 39.
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GoatAid to Bible Understanding
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GOAT
A cud-chewing mammal with hollow horns and usually long, relatively straight hair. The Syrian goat, distinguished by its long, drooping ears and its backward-curving horns, is the predominant breed of Palestine. Usually these goats are black; speckled ones are exceptional. (Gen. 30:32, 35) He-goats were one of the items of Tyre’s trade.—Ezek. 27:21.
In Bible times, some of the goat herds may have been quite large. Nabal, for example, had 1,000 goats. (1 Sam. 25:2, 3) Jacob’s gift to Esau included two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats. (Gen. 32:13, 14) And the Arabs brought 7,700 he-goats to King Jehoshaphat of Judah.—2 Chron. 17:11.
To the Hebrews the goat was very valuable. (Prov. 27:26) It provided them with milk, from which butter and cheese could be made. (Prov. 27:27) Its flesh, particularly that of the kid, was eaten. (Gen. 27:9; Deut. 14:4; Judg. 6:19; 13:15; Luke 15:29) And for the Passover, either a male sheep or a year-old male goat could be used. (Ex. 12:5) Goat’s hair, made into fabric, was employed in various ways. (Num. 31:20) The “tents of Kedar” may have been made from black goat’s hair (Song of Sol. 1:5), and goat’s hair was used in the construction of the tabernacle. (Ex. 26:7; 35:26) Goatskins were made into bottles (see Genesis 21:15) and were also used for clothing, as by certain persecuted pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah.—Heb. 11:37.
The Mosaic law prohibited eating the fat of a goat offered as a sacrifice (Lev. 7:23-25) and boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 14:21) The reason for the latter prohibition may have been that this practice had idolatrous associations. It is said that among certain ancient peoples a kid was seethed or boiled in its mother’s milk and then the broth was sprinkled on trees, fields and gardens, with a view to ensuring fertility.—See MILK.
The goat served as a sacrificial animal, being presented as a burnt offering (Lev. 1:10; 22:18, 19), a communion sacrifice (Lev. 3:6, 12), a sin offering (Ezra 8:35) and a guilt offering. (Lev. 5:6) Every firstborn of the goats was to be sacrificed, but not until at least eight days old. (Lev. 22:27; Num. 18:17) A female goat in its first year (or, a female lamb) was the prescribed sin offering for a person not a priest or a chieftain. (Lev. 4:28, 32; Num. 18:17) At certain times goats were sacrificed as sin offerings for the nation of Israel as a whole. (Lev. 23:19; Num. 28:11, 15, 16, 22, 26-30; 29:1-39; 2 Chron. 29:20-24; Ezra 6:17) A young male goat served as the sin offering for a chieftain. (Lev. 4:22-26) On the Day of Atonement, two goats were used, one as a sin offering for the twelve non-Levite tribes, and the other designated as for “Azazel.” (Lev. 16:1-27; see ATONEMENT DAY; AZAZEL.) Of course, those goats that were offered in sacrifice could not actually take away sins, but merely pictured the real sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.—Heb. 9:11-14; 10:3, 4.
FIGURATIVE AND PROPHETIC USAGE
The hair of the Shulammite girl was compared to a drove of goats, perhaps alluding to the glistening sheen of black hair or to the luxuriant abundance of the girl’s tresses. (Song of Sol. 4:1; 6:5) Israel’s small army, when compared with that of the Syrians, was likened to “two tiny flocks of goats.” (1 Ki. 20:27) Goats were used to represent people, particularly those in opposition to Jehovah. (Isa. 34:6, 7; compare Jeremiah 51:40; Ezekiel 34:17; Zechariah 10:3.) In Jesus’ illustration of the sheep and the goats, the goats represent those persons who refuse to do good to the least of his brothers.—Matt. 25:31-46.
The he-goat of Daniel’s prophecy represented the Grecian (or Greco-Macedonian) World Power. (Dan. 8:5-8, 21) Concerning this The Imperial Bible-Dictionary, Volume I, page 664, observes: “It is interesting to know that this [the goat] was the recognized symbol of their nation by the Macedonians themselves. Monuments are still extant in which this symbol occurs, as one of the pilasters of Persepolis, where a goat is depicted with one immense horn on his forehead, and a Persian holding the horn, by which is intended the subjection of Macedon by Persia” (something
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