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Lion and Unicorn

rose

Biblical Locations
of the Lost Ten Tribes


  Scriptural Proof 

 The Joseph Aspect 

  by Yair Davidiy 



 Biblical Evidence: The Joseph Aspect

The Lion and Unicorn

The Lion and Unicorn were representative of Israel in its aspect of power in the End Times. The lion and unicorn are on the coat of arms officially symbolizing Britain.
Bilaam the heathen prophet foresaw that in the End Times the descendants of Israel would be very powerful. He likened them to a lion and a raem  or unicorn.


The Coat of Arms of Britain
Britain

The Coat of Arms of Scotland
Scotland


<<GOD BROUGHT THEM OUT OF EGYPT; HE HATH AS IT WERE THE STRENGTH OF AN UNICORN.

<<SURELY THERE IS NO ENCHANTMENT AGAINST JACOB, NEITHER IS THERE ANY DIVINATION AGAINST ISRAEL: ACCORDING TO THIS TIME IT SHALL BE SAID OF JACOB AND OF ISRAEL, WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!

<<BEHOLD, THE PEOPLE SHALL RISE UP AS A GREAT LION, AND LIFT UP HIMSELF AS A YOUNG LION: HE SHALL NOT LIE DOWN UNTIL HE EAT OF THE PREY, AND DRINK THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN>> [Numbers 23:22-24].

The symbols of Scotland had two unicorns and that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain had a lion and a unicorn. The Midrash (Numbers Rabah) says that the raem (unicorn) was the symbol of MANASSEH. In our passage Israel is likened to a unicorn. Only in Britain does the unicorn appear as a national symbol.  On the other hand the unicorn came to Britain from Scotland which is still represented by two unicorns. More than 80% of the founding settlers of the USA came from Scotland and related areas in the North and West of Britain.

How Many Horns Did the Unicorn Have?
<<HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS>> [Deuteronomy 33:17]. This phrase in the Hebrew says, Karnei [the Horns of] Raem [a unicorn] Karnov [are his horns]. The expression in the Hebrew can in effect be understood to say that the raem (unicorn) has more than one horn. Rabbinical Commentators however (and the King James Translation after them) chose to interpret it as consistent with the Raem having only one horn. In this their opinion was consistent with that of the major Rabbinical Commentators. There is in fact a Biblical verse that could justify this view:
<<HE HATH AS IT WERE THE STRENGTH [Hebrew: TOYAFOTH] OF AN UNICORN>>  [Numbers 23:22].

The word translated above from the Hebrew as strength is TOYAFOTH and literally means that which he is exalted by (lifted up) and appears to be referring to the horns. This word is spelt one way and traditionally pronounced another. It is spelt in the singular and pronounced in the plural. The expression of strength (Toyafoth), meaning the horns which are normally plural, in this case have become ONE [TOYAFATH:  in the singular instead of TOYAFOTH  in the plural]. Perhaps it is an animal that in some cases has one horn and in other cases has two?


The Classical Opinion
Rabbi David Kimchi (Safer HaShorashim, RAEM): <<HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS (Deuteronomy 33:17). It is intended to mean that his horns are like the horns of (several) unicorns for the Raem has only one horn. [Psalms 29:6] HE MAKETH THEM ALSO TO SKIP LIKE A CALF; LEBANON AND SIRION LIKE A YOUNG UNICORN.  [Psalms 22:21] SAVE ME FROM THE LION'S MOUTH: FOR THOU HAST HEARD ME FROM THE HORNS OF THE UNICORNS, i.e. A wild beast of the wilderness, extremely strong.>>

The Greek Translation of the Bible (Septuagent) translates Raem (Numbers 23:22) as monoceros  i.e. one-horned. Saadia, Yehudah HaLevi, and Ibn Ezra also considered the "Raem" to be a unicorn (see Kaplan in the "Living Torah"), as did Menasseh ben Israel.

Did the Unicorn Exist? In our magazine Brit-Am Truth  no.7 there is an article discussing this question in depth. There were animals with one horn such as the narwal (a small whale with a long horn);
the "sakea" which was a kind of goat like deer depicted by the Assyrians with one horn. In some opinions the sakea was a mythical animal (THE ARAB FRINGE. AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING Mutsri, KUSH, MELUHHA AND MAGAN by Michael Banyai
http://www.abara2.de/chronologie/fringe.php);
The Prehistoric Elasmotherium: "This was a gigantic rhinoceros the size of an elephant, with a horn that may have measured up to six feet long.  Unlike the contemporary rhinoceros, the horn of the elasmotherium was situated on its forehead rather than on its nose." (Mysterious Creatures. Intriguing Torah Enigmas of Natural and Unnatural History, Nosson Slifkin, Israel, 2003 p.62). This animal was reportedly extinct long before the age of man, but who knows?

The auroch which was a gigantic wild bull of immense strength and only recently extinct has also been suggested as representing the "raem" and in Akkadian (the language of Ancient Assyria) the word "rimu" appears to mean an auroth.

Whatever the "raem" originally was it became identified with the unicorn and together with the lion these two were used as symbols of Britain.

Detail from synagogue ceiling, in Hodorov (in Poland?), 17th-c. reconstruction.
Picture depicts a lion and unicorn.

The lion is kissing the horn of the unicorn -perhaps indicating the reunification of Judah and Joseph?

lion and unicorn



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