Gen. i. 21. Vulg. Cet. grandia. 70. Exod. vii. 9.TANNIM, or Thannim, signifies in general, great Fishes, Sea-monsters, Dragons. When Moses threw down his Rod before Pharaoh, it was changed into a Dragon; the Hebrew says Thannim. And elsewhere, their Poison is as the Venom of the Tannim. We think that sometimes it expresses the Crocodile. For example, in Psal. lxxiv. 13. Thou breakest the heads of the Dragons in the waters; of the Tannim, or Thanninim. The Seventy, and even St. Jerom, sometimes translate Tannim by Syrens. supposing this Word to signify Sea-Monsters, whose Figure partakes of both a Man and a Fish. See, for example, Job xxx. 29. Isaiah xxxiv. 13. xliii. 20. in the Version of the Seventy, and Isai. xiii. 22. in the Vulgate. In one Passage St. Jerom renders Thannim by Lamiæ, Lament. iv. 3.Witches, or Sorceresses; but the general and better Interpretation is Dragons, or Sea-monsters.
Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged
Volume III · T
Tannim
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Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Tannim,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/t/tannim/.