Definition

beef cattle or an animal of the ox family of either gender (as used for plowing); collectively, a herd

Etymology

from H1239 (בָּקַר);

Where the KJV renders it

• beeve
• bull ( -ock)
• calf
• cow
• great (cattle)
• heifer
• herd
• kine
• ox

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.