Psalms 22:21

for thou hast heard me&c. Render, yea from the horns of the wild oxen thou hast answered me. A singularly bold and forcible construction. We expect a second imperative, repeating the prayer for deliverance (rescue thou me:cp. Jer. exaudi). But the conviction that his prayer is heard, nay, answered, flashes upon the Psalmist's soul; prayer is changed into assurance, joyous confidence takes the place of petition. Less forcible is the explanation which assumes a pregnant rather than a broken construction: From the horns of the wild oxen thou hast answeredand delivered me.

unicorns The rendering of LXX, Vulg., Jer. But the re"çmwas certainly a two-horned animal (Deuteronomy 33:17, R.V.). The Auerochs or wild ox (Bos primigenius), now everywhere extinct, is almost certainly the animal meant. Its strength and untamableness are described in Job 39:9 ff. See Tristram's Nat. Hist. p. 146 ff.