قَالَ إِنِّى لَيَحْزُنُنِىٓ أَن تَذْهَبُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَأَخَافُ أَن يَأْكُلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ وَأَنتُمْ عَنْهُ غَٰفِلُونَ
Quran glossary · draft
ذأب
wolf
The wolf invoked as a possible predator of Joseph.
Lexical scope
Scope: curated segment set · Occurrences: 3
Roots: ذأب
Lemmas: ذئب
Forms: ذِّئْبُ
Occurrence examples (3 of 3)
Scoped occurrences shown in Quran order: 3.
قَالُوا۟ لَئِنْ أَكَلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ إِنَّآ إِذًا لَّخَٰسِرُونَ
قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَآ إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَٰعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ وَمَآ أَنتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍ لَّنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَٰدِقِينَ
Why this meaning was chosen
All three targets are the definite singular ٱلذِّئْبُ within one Joseph narrative sequence. Jacob fears that a wolf might eat Joseph, the brothers deny that possibility while together, and their later report repeats it. Narrative stance changes, but the animal kind remains fixed.