Mule

The mule is a working animal, steady and sure-footed, and Scripture mostly mentions it in passing. Ezra’s list of those who returned from exile counts “their mules, two hundred forty and five.” Naaman asks for “two mules’ burden of earth” to carry home from Israel. But a mule also appears in sadder moments. the king’s sons each rode a mule when they fled after Amnon’s death, and later Absalom himself rode one under a great oak, where “his head caught hold of the oak.” The mule went on without him. Read 2 Samuel 18 for that scene.

5 verses

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 13:29

And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and every man gat him up upon his mule, and fled.

2 Samuel 18:9

And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.

2 Kings

2 Kings 5:17

And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.

Ezra

Ezra 2:66

Their horses were seven hundred thirty and six; their mules, two hundred forty and five;

Zechariah

Zechariah 14:15

And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(Heb. pered), so called from the quick step of the animal or its power of carrying loads. It is not probable that the Hebrews bred mules, as this was strictly forbidden in the law (Lev. 19:19), although their use was not forbidden. We find them in common use even by kings and nobles (2 Sam. 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33; 2 Kings 5:17; Ps. 32:9). They are not mentioned, however, till the time of David, for the word rendered “mules” (R.V. correctly, “hot springs”) in Gen. 36:24 (yemim) properly denotes the warm springs of Callirhoe, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. In David’s reign they became very common (2 Sam. 13:29; 1 Kings 10:25).

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Mules are not mentioned in the New Testament. Perhaps they had by that time ceased to be used in Palestine.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

a hybrid animal, the offspring of a horse and an ass. "The mule is smaller than the horse, and is a remarkably hardy, patient, obstinate, sure-footed animal, living, ordinarily, twice as long as a horse." --McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia. It was forbidden to the Israelites to breed mules, but sometimes they imported them. It would appear that only kings and great men rode on mules. We do not read of mules at all in the New Testament; perhaps therefore they had ceased to be imported.