Unicorn

Translation Notes · Old Testament

Unicorn

רְאֵם rĕʾēm · Strong's H7214

In the KJV’s English a unicorn was a real beast of great strength, the one-horned monoceros or rhinoceros, not a creature of fable.

Modern versions: “wild ox” (ESV, NIV, NASB, RSV)

Rĕʾēm names a beast of great strength that no man can tame: “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?” (Job 39:9–10). Scripture speaks of “the horn of an unicorn” (Psalm 92:10), one horn to each, as Moses speaks of Joseph’s “horns … like the horns of unicorns” (Deuteronomy 33:17).

The KJV did not invent the word, or a fable. The Jews who translated the Law into Greek wrote monokerōs, “one-horned”: “he has as it were the glory of a unicorn” (Numbers 23:22). Jerome’s Latin has rhinoceros in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Job, and Webster’s dictionary in 1828 still gives the English word’s sense: “an animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros.” To readers of 1611 a unicorn was a real and fearful animal of the East.

Modern versions put “wild ox,” a guess at a beast no longer known by its Hebrew name; Gill, weighing the rhinoceros and the wild ox, says only that “whatever is meant by the Reem here, must be a strong creature.” The KJV keeps the name the Greek and Latin Bibles gave it, and every verse keeps its point: the strength God gives His people (Numbers 23:22), and the power no man can harness (Job 39:9–10).

Where the King James Bible Has It

Numbers 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8 God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

Deuteronomy 33:17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalms 22:21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalms 29:6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalms 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

Sources

The Septuagint, Numbers 23:22, in Brenton’s translation (1844)

It was God who brought him out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn.

Checked against: eBible.org, 2026-10-20
The Latin Vulgate, Numbers 23:22 and Job 39:9

Deus eduxit illum de Ægypto, cujus fortitudo similis est rhinocerotis. … Numquid volet rhinoceros servire tibi, aut morabitur ad præsepe tuum?

Checked against: Clementine Vulgate (1592), 2026-10-20
Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), “Unicorn”

An animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros.

Checked against: webstersdictionary1828.com, 2026-10-20
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 1 (1763), p. 765, on Numbers 23:22

Whether the Rhinoceros or the wild ox, or one kind of goats, as Bochart thinks; whatever is meant by the Reem here, must be a strong creature.

Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-23