Archive for animals

Born this day

Shepherds and angel glory

The Christ Child as told by Matthew and Luke
Made by Maud and Miska Petersham
Doubleday and Co., 1931.

 

Christ Child Petersham crop

The Christ Child as told by Matthew and Luke
Made by Maud and Miska Petersham
Doubleday and Co., 1931.

 

 

Methinks I see an heav’nly host
Of angels on the wing;
Methinks I hear their cheerful notes
So merrily they sing.

Let all your fears be banish’d hence,
Glad tidings I proclaim;
For there’s a Savior born today,
And Jesus is his name.

Lay down your crooks, and quit your flocks,
To Bethlehem repair;
And let your wand’ring steps be squar’d
By yonder shining star.

Seek not in courts or palaces,
Nor royal curtains draw;
But search the stable, see your God
Extended on the straw.

Then suddenly a heav’nly host
Around the shepherds throng,
Exulting in the threefold God
And thus address their song.

To God the Father, Christ the Son,
And Holy Ghost ador’d;
The first and last, the last and first,
Eternal praise afford.

Shiloh by William Billings, 1746-1800

 

Billings NewEnglandPsalms00bill_0008  Billings Newenglandpsalms title page bill_0009

 

 

Behemoth and porcupine

Hippopotamus Illustration by Howard Berelson in Animals of the Bible, written by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday, 1977

Hippopotamus
Illustration by Howard Berelson in
Animals of the Bible,
text by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday, 1977

 

“Behold, Be′hemoth,
which I made as I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
Behold, his strength in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly…
Under the lotus plants he lies,
in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
For his shade the lotus trees cover him;
the willows of the brook surround him.
Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;
he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.” (from Job 40)

 

Illustration by Howard Berelson in Animals of the Bible written by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday, 1977

Porcupine
Illustration by Howard Berelson in
Animals of the Bible
text by Isaac Asimov, Doubleday, 1977

 

For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
But the hawk and the porcupine[c] shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. (from Isaiah 34)