Bible Strands
Leviticus 11:16
the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses relays Yahweh’s legislative instructions to the Israelites, cataloging unclean birds within a broader purity code. This verse functions as a discrete entry in a systematic list of prohibited avian species.
The words — The Hebrew בַּת־יַעֲנָה (bat-yaʿănâ) literally renders "daughter of the ostrich," and שׁחַף (śâchaf) denotes a gull or seabird. These lexical items identify specific creatures classified as unclean without providing etymological or ecological justification.
The thread — The identical list reappears in Deuteronomy 14:15 as a reiterated dietary boundary. Later passages like Psalm 102:6 and Isaiah 13:21 repurpose these same birds as literary markers of desolation and abandoned settlements.
Why it lands — The text commands strict separation from the listed species without offering rationale. Readers must accept the classification as a binding boundary between clean and unclean without negotiating its origin or utility.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 14:15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
- Psalms 102:6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
- Isaiah 13:21 But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
- Isaiah 34:11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.
- John 3:19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
- Ephesians 2:2 in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
- Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
- Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
- Philippians 3:18 For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5 For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.