Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
BEAST. Gen 2:19. This word is generally used to distinguish all animals from man, as in Ps 36:6. Sometimes quadrupeds only are denoted by it, as Lev 11:2; and in Gen 1:24-25, it is supposed to refer to creatures that roam at large. Beasts were created on the sixth day, and were named by Adam. Paul describes some of his opposers as wild beasts, so furious and brutal was their treatment of him. 1 Cor 15:32. A similar application will be found in Ps
22:12-16; Eccl 3:18; Isa 11:6-8, and in 2 Pet 2:12 and Jude 10, to denote a class of wicked men. "Wild beasts of the islands" Jer 50:39, etc., seem to be jackals (literally, "the howlers," as in Arabic these animals are called "the sons of howling"). "Wild beasts of the desert" probably denote such creatures as the hyena. Under the ancient dispensation the beasts were sometimes made to participate externally in the observance of religious
ceremonies, Jon 3:7-8, and suffered, with men, the judgment of God. Ex 9:6 and Ex 13:15; Ps 135:8; Jer 7:20 and Jer 21:6; Eze 32:13; Eze 38:20; Hos 4:3. See Clean and Unclean.