Strong's Number: H1241
Original Word: baqar
Usage Notes: "herd; cattle." This noun has cognates in Arabic and Aramaic. It appears about 180 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.
One meaning of the word is "cattle." Such beasts were slaughtered for food, and their hides were presented as offerings to God (Num 15:8). This meaning of baqar is in Gen 12:16 (the first biblical occurrence): "And he [Pharaoh] entreated Abram well for her [Sarah's] sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses…." These were grazing beasts (1Chron 27:29) and were eaten (1Kings 4:23). These animals pulled carts (2Sam 6:6) and plows (Job 1:14), and carried burdens on their backs (1Chron 12:40).
Baqar often refers to a group of cattle or "herd" (both sexes), as it does in Gen 13:5: And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds [in the Hebrew, this word appears in a singular form] and tents." The word can represent a "small group of cattle" (not a herd; cf. Gen 47:17; Exod 22:1) or even a pair of oxen (Num 7:17). A single ox is indicated either by some other Hebrew word or called an offspring of oxen (Gen 18:7).
Baqar also refers to statues of oxen: "It [the altar of burnt offerings] stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the east…" (1Kings 7:25).
Some scholars believe this noun is related to the verb baqar ("to seek out") and to the noun boqer ("morning").
