animal
be.he.mah denotes animals, especially livestock kept, fed, inherited, or taken as spoil, and also animals generally or beasts of the land.
The term most often identifies livestock as a community’s possessions and dependents: animals are fed, watered, counted among plunder, and included in offspring or firstborn regulations. It also names animals as a broad class in laws and comparisons with people, including beasts associated with the land.
Senses in use
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Livestock under human care or possession · dominant
In Deuteronomy 11:15, the construct form occurs where vegetation is provided in the fields for livestock, and in 2 Kings 3:17 the clause includes animals that will drink from the filled wadi. The same use appears where such animals are plunder in Deuteronomy 2:35, where their offspring are included among blessings in Deuteronomy 28:4, and where stalls hold livestock in 2 Chronicles 32:28.
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Animals as a general class · common
The absolute singular form marks the general category in Deuteronomy 14:4, where the APB renders a list of permitted creatures as “the animal,” and in Deuteronomy 14:6, where every animal with specified hoof and cud traits may be eaten. In Exodus 13:2, animals are paired with people in the command concerning every firstborn; in Ecclesiastes 3:19, the APB compares the fate of humans and the beast.
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Beasts of the land in destructive settings · occasional
The plural form occurs in Deuteronomy 32:24, where teeth of beasts are sent alongside serpents, and in Habakkuk 2:17, where the APB renders destruction of beasts as a cause of terror. In 1 Samuel 17:44, the construct form occurs in the threat to give David’s flesh to birds of heaven and animals of the land.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the supplied verses, the APB variously uses “livestock,” “animals,” “animal,” “beast,” and “beasts.” These renderings confirm the clauses’ broad animal reference rather than establishing separate English definitions.