Mule

A hybrid animal, born from a donkey and a horse, often used in biblical times for carrying loads and riding.

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Mule

About Mule

A mule is an animal born from a male donkey and a female horse. Its scientific name is Equus asinus mulus. Mules cannot usually have babies of their own. When a female donkey and a male horse have a baby, it is called a hinny. Hinnies are smaller than mules and not as useful.

The law in the Old Testament did not allow crossbreeding of animals (Leviticus 19:19). This is why the Israelites bought mules from other nations instead of breeding them. They probably bought them from the Phoenicians, since the city of Tyre (a Phoenician seaport in what is now southern Lebanon) sold horses and mules (Ezekiel 27:14).

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The animal itself Article

Habits, distribution, and how translators render the term across languages.

Key References

2 Samuel 18:9

Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.

Ezra 2:66

They had 736 horses, 245 mules,

All Scripture References (43)

Exodus (1)
Exodus 27:20

And you are to command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

Leviticus (1)
Leviticus 24:2

“Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

Numbers (2)
Numbers 18:12

I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.

Numbers 28:5

along with a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives.

Deuteronomy (7)
Deuteronomy 7:13

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 8:8

a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

Deuteronomy 11:14

then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

Deuteronomy 12:17

Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

Deuteronomy 14:23

And you are to eat a tenth of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks, in the presence of the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

Deuteronomy 18:4

You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.

Deuteronomy 28:51

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.

2 Samuel (2)
2 Samuel 13:29

So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.

2 Samuel 18:9

Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.

1 Kings (5)
1 Kings 1:33

“Take my servants with you,” said the king. “Set my son Solomon on my own mule and take him down to Gihon.

1 Kings 1:38

Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, went down and set Solomon on King David’s mule, and they escorted him to Gihon.

1 Kings 1:44

And with Solomon, the king has sent Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, and they have set him on the king’s mule.

1 Kings 10:25

Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

1 Kings 18:5

Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”

2 Kings (2)
2 Kings 5:17

“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry. For your servant will never again make a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other god but the LORD.

2 Kings 18:32

until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’

1 Chronicles (1)
2 Chronicles (3)
2 Chronicles 9:24

Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

2 Chronicles 31:5

As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously provided the firstfruits of the grain, new wine, oil, and honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in an abundance—a tithe of everything.

2 Chronicles 32:28

He also made storehouses for the harvest of grain and new wine and oil, stalls for all kinds of livestock, and pens for the flocks.

Ezra (1)
Ezra 2:66

They had 736 horses, 245 mules,

Nehemiah (5)
Nehemiah 5:11

Please restore to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and oil that you have been assessing them.”

Nehemiah 10:38

A priest of Aaron’s line is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of these tithes to the storerooms of the treasury in the house of our God.

Nehemiah 13:5

and had prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the temple articles, and the tithes of grain, new wine, and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, along with the contributions for the priests.

Nehemiah 13:12

and all Judah brought a tenth of the grain, new wine, and oil into the storerooms.

Psalms (1)
Psalm 32:9

Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.

Isaiah (1)
Isaiah 66:20

And they will bring all your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the LORD on horses and chariots and wagons, on mules and camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “just as the Israelites bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.”

Jeremiah (1)
Jeremiah 31:12

They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.

Ezekiel (1)
Ezekiel 27:14

The men of Beth-togarmah exchanged horses, war horses, and mules for your wares.

Hosea (2)
Hosea 2:10

And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

Joel (3)
Joel 1:10

The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

Joel 2:19

And the LORD answered His people: “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and by them you will be satisfied. I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.

Joel 2:24

The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

Micah (1)
Micah 6:15

You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.

Haggai (1)
Haggai 1:11

I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Zechariah (2)
Zechariah 4:14

So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”

Zechariah 14:15

And a similar plague will strike the horses and mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.