Inerrancy defenders will assert the rabbit habit of chewing its own feces counts as chewing the cud. Does the Hyrax have the same habit as the rabbit in this respect? If anyone knows, please comment.
Here is a rathe neat site concerning the coney and hyrax:
http://biblehub.net/searchtopical.php?q=hyrax
Topical Bible: Coney
◄ Coney ►
(
shaphan), a gregarious animal of the class Pachydermata, which is found in Palestine, living in the caves and clefts of the rocks, and has been erroneously identified with the rabbit or coney. Its scientific name as
Hyrax syriacus . The hyrax satisfies exactly the expressions in (
Psalms 104:18;
Proverbs 30:26) Its color is gray or brown on the back, white on the belly; it is like the alpine marmot, scarcely of the size of the domestic cat, having long hair, a very short tail and round ears. It is found on Lebanon and in the Jordan and Dead Sea valleys.
Its scientific name as
Hyrax syriacus . The
... 7). The animal intended by this
name is known among naturalists as the
Hyrax Syriacus.
...
The animal intended by this name is known among naturalists as the
Hyrax Syriacus. It is neither a ruminant nor a rodent, but is regarded as akin to the rhinoceros. When it is said to "chew the cud," the Hebrew word so used does not necessarily imply the possession of a ruminant stomach. "The lawgiver speaks according to appearances; and no one can watch the constant motion of the little creature's jaws, as it sits continually working its teeth, without recognizing the naturalness of the expression" (Tristram, Natural History of the Bible).
It is about the size and color of a rabbit, though clumsier in structure, and without a tail. Its feet are not formed for digging, and therefore it has its home not in burrows but in the clefts of the rocks. "Coney" is an obsolete English word for "rabbit."
But whereas hares have a pair of front teeth on each jaw, the hyrax has one pair above and two below. These teeth differ also in structure from those of the hare and rabbit, not having the persistent pulp which e
nables the rabbit's front teeth to grow continually as they are worn away. They do not hide among herbage like hares, nor burrow like rabbits, but live in holes or clefts of the rock, frequently in the faces of steep cliffs. Neither the hyrax nor the hare is a ruminant, as seems to be implied in
Leviticus 11:5 and
Deuteronomy 14:7, but their manner of chewing their food may readily have led them to be thought to chew the cud.
The hyrax has four toes in front and three behind (the same number as in the tapir and in some fossil members of the horse family), all furnished with nails that are almost like hoofs, except the inner hind toes, which have claws. The hyraxes constitute a family of ungulates and, in spite of their small size, have points of resemblance to elephants or rhinoceroses, but are not closely allied to these or to any other known animals.
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