Smith's Bible Dictionary
Mouse(the corn-eater). The name of this animal occurs in (Leviticus 11:29; 1 Samuel 6:4,5; Isaiah 66:17) The Hebrew word is in all probability generic, and is not intended to denote any particular species of mouse. The original word denotes a field-ravager, and may therefore comprehend any destructive rodent. Tristram found twenty-three species of mice in Palestine. It is probable that in (1 Samuel 6:5) the expression "the mice that mar the land" includes and more particularly refers to the short-tailed field-mice (Arvicola agrestis , Flem.), which cause great destruction to the corn-lands of Syria.
ATS Bible Dictionary
MouseIn the Scriptures, is used chiefly of the field mouse, but probably includes various species of these animals, some of which were eaten. Moses, Le 11:29, declared it to be unclean, yet it was sometimes eaten; and Isaiah 66:17, reproaches the Jews with this practice. The hamster and the dormouse, as well as the jerboa, are sometimes used for food by the modern Arabs. Mice made great havoc in the fields of the Philistines, after that people had taken the ark of the Lord; which induced them to send it back with mice and emerods of gold, 1 Samuel 5:6,9,11 6:4-5. The field mice are equally prevalent in those regions at the present day. See HAMATH.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
MOUSE; MICEmous, mis (`akhbar; Septuagint mus, "mouse"; compare Arabic `akbar, "jerboa" not 'akbar, "greater"; compare also proper noun, `akhbor, "Achbor" (Genesis 36:38 1 Chronicles 1:49; also 2 Kings 22:12, 14 Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12)): The word occurs in the list of unclean "creeping things" (Leviticus 11:29), in the account of the golden mice and tumors (the King James Version and the American Revised Version margin "emerods") sent by the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:4-18), and in the phrase, "eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse" (Isaiah 66:17). The cosmopolitan housemouse, Mus musculus, is doubtless the species referred to. The jerboa or jumping mouse, Arabic yarbu, is eaten by the Arabs of the Syrian desert, Northeast of Damascus. Possibly allied to `akhbar is the Arabic `akbar (generally in plural, `akabir), used for the male of the jerboa.
Alfred Ely Day
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Hebrews `akhbar, "swift digger"
1 Samuel 6:4). In
Leviticus 11:29,
Isaiah 66:17 this word is used generically, and includes the jerboa (Mus jaculus), rat, hamster (Cricetus), which, though declared to be unclean animals, were eaten by the Arabs, and are still eaten by the Bedouins. It is said that no fewer than twenty-three species of this group (`akhbar=Arab. ferah) of animals inhabit Palestine. God "laid waste" the people of Ashdod by the terrible visitation of field-mice, which are like locusts in their destructive effects (
1 Samuel 6:4, 11, 18). Herodotus, the Greek historian, accounts for the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (
2 Kings 19:35) by saying that in the night thousands of mice invaded the camp and gnawed through the bow-strings, quivers, and shields, and thus left the Assyrians helpless. (see
SENNACHERIB.)
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
1. (
n.) Any one of numerous species of small rodents belonging to the genus Mus and various related genera of the family Muridae. The common house mouse (Mus musculus) is found in nearly all countries. The American white-footed, or deer, mouse (Hesperomys leucopus) sometimes lives in houses. See
Harvest.
2. (n.) A knob made on a rope with spun yarn or parceling to prevent a running eye from slipping.
3. (n.) Same as Mousing.
4. (n.) A familiar term of endearment.
5. (n.) A dark-colored swelling caused by a blow.
6. (n.) A match used in firing guns or blasting.
7. (v. i.) To watch for and catch mice.
8. (v. i.) To watch for or pursue anything in a sly manner; to pry about, on the lookout for something.
9. (v. t.) To tear, as a cat devours a mouse.
10. (v. t.) To furnish with a mouse; to secure by means of a mousing. See Mouse, n., 2.
Strong's Hebrew
5909. akbar -- a mouse... << 5908, 5909. akbar. 5910 >>. a
mouse. Transliteration: akbar Phonetic Spelling:
(ak-bawr') Short Definition: mice. Word Origin
... mouse (1).
mouse.
... /hebrew/5909.htm - 6k 5907. Akbor -- "mouse," an Israelite, also an Edomite
... Akbor or Akbor. 5908 >>. "mouse," an Israelite, also an Edomite. Transliteration:
Akbor or Akbor Phonetic Spelling: (ak-bore') Short Definition: Achbor. ...
/hebrew/5907.htm - 6k