Forest and Field

Isaiah invites two categories of beasts to come to the house of God: Beasts of the field, and beasts of the forest (56:9). What kinds of beasts does he have in mind?

Both are wild animals. Beast ( chayyah ) is undomesticated; while cattle ( behemah ) is a general term for livestock. Sometimes beasts of the field refer to predators (cf. 2 Samuel 21:10; Ezekiel 29:5), but the beasts of the field also include herbivores like gazelles and deer (2 Samuel 2:18). The much rarer phrase “beasts of the forest,” on the other hand, seem to be predominantly predators or other destructive creatures, lions, boars, and the like (Psalm 80:13; 104:20-21; Micah 5:8). Since both are used in Isaiah 56:9, it seems plausible to think that Isaiah refers to two sorts of animals – predators and prey. It’s possible that he simply means wild beasts in all their possible habitats, summarized as forest and field.

If we conclude that beasts of the forest are specifically predators, we can perhaps extend the point slightly. Buildings are sometimes described as fields – the house of the forest that was part of Solomon’s palace complex (1 Kings 7:2) and the temple itself (Psalm 74). Solomon in his forest palace is a lion of the tribe of Judah, a beast of the forest. And so is Yahweh, a beast of the temple-forest whose voice roars like a lion’s (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8).