Prey

PREY [ISBE]

PREY - pra (baz, Tereph, shalal): "Prey" is frequent in the Old Testament, chiefly as the translation of baz, "spoil," "plunder" (Nu 14:3,11; Dt 1:39; Isa 10:6, etc.); of Tereph, "prey of wild beasts," "torn thing" (Gen 49:9; Nu 23:24; Job 4:11, etc.); of malqoah, "a taking" (Nu 31:11, etc.; Isa 49:24,25); of shalal, "spoil" or "booty" (Jdg 5:30 twice; 8:24,25; Isa 10:2, etc.). Maher-shalal-chash-baz (the Revised Version margin "The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth") was the symbolical name given to a son of Isaiah (Isa 8:1,3). "Prey" does not occur in the New Testament, but is found in the Apoc: 1 Esdras 8:77, "for our sins .... were given up .... for a prey" (pronome); Judith 9:4; 16:5; 1 Macc 7:47; Ecclesiasticus 27:10 (thera); Judith 5:24 (katabroma).

In the Revised Version (British and American) shalal is generally translated "spoil" (Jdg 5:30; 8:24,25; Isa 10:2, etc.), while, conversely, "prey" (noun and verb) is occasionally substituted for "spoil," "booty" (Nu 31:32, ere).

See BOOTY; SPOIL.

W. L. Walker