Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 11:17
And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,
17. the little owl ] Heb. k in the two texts and in Psa 102:7 only. A bird screeching by night is indicated by the LXX. and Vulg.
the cormorant ] The position of this word in Deut. is more suitable than here. The Heb. word shlk implies plunging downwards with force and the Targ. translates it ‘a bird that catches fishes.’
the great owl ] In the two texts and Isa 34:11 (‘owl,’ R. and A.V., ‘bittern’ R.V. mg.) the LXX. translate ‘ibis.’ Some species of owl is indicated.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 17. The little owl] cos, the bittern, night-raven or night-owl, according to most interpreters. Some think the onocrotalus or pelican may be intended; for as the word cos signifies a cup in Hebrew, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw, it might have had its Hebrew name from this circumstance; but the kaath in the following verse is rather supposed to mean this fowl, and the cos some species of the bubo or owl. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 272.
The cormorant] shalach, from the root which signifies to cast down; hence the Septuagint , the cataract, or bird which falls precipitately down upon its prey. It probably signifies the plungeon or diver, a sea fowl, which I have seen at sea dart down as swift as an arrow into the water, and seize the fish which it had discovered while even flying, or rather soaring, at a very great height.
The great owl] yanshuph, according to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, signifies the ibis, a bird well known and held sacred in Egypt. Some critics, with our translation, think it means a species of owl or night bird, because the word may be derived from nesheph, which signifies the twilight, the time in which owls chiefly fly about. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 281.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
17. the little owlor hornedowl, as some render it. The common barn owl, which is well known inthe East. It is the only bird of its kind here referred to, althoughthe word is thrice mentioned in our version.
cormorantsupposed tobe the gull. [See on De 14:17.]
the great owlaccordingto some, the Ibis of the Egyptians. It was well known to theIsraelites, and so rendered by the Septuagint (Deu 14:16;Isa 34:11): according toPARKHURST, the bittern,but not determined.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl. Ainsworth translates the words just the reverse, and takes the first word to signify the great owl, and the last the little one; the great owl may intend the great horn owl, called sometimes the eagle owl, which is thus described; it is of the size of a goose, and has large wings, capable of extending to a surprising breadth: its head is much of the size and figure of that of a cat, and has clusters of black feathers over the ears, rising to three fingers’ height; its eyes are very large, and the feathers of its rump long, and extremely soft; its eyes have yellow irises, and its beak black and crooked: it is all over mottled with white, reddish, and black spots; its legs are very strong, and are hairy down to the very ends of the toes, their covering being of a whitish brown g: and as this is called the great horn owl, others, in comparison of it, may be called the little owl. Some reckon several species of owls–there are of three sizes; the large ones are as big as a capon, the middle sized are as big as a wood pigeon, the smaller sort about the size of an ordinary pigeon–the horned owl is of two kinds, a larger and a smaller–the great owl is also of two sorts, that is, of a larger and a smaller kind h; it is a bird sacred to Minerva: but though it is pretty plain that the last of the words used signifies a bird that flies in the twilight of the evening, from whence it seems to have its name, as Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and other Jewish writers observe, and fitly agrees with the owl which is not seen in the day, but appears about that time; yet the first is thought by Bochart i to be the “onocrotalus” or “pelican”, which has under its bill a bag or sack, which will hold a large quantity of anything; and the word here used has the signification of a cup or vessel, see
Ps 102:6. The word we render “cormorant”, the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase it, a drawer of fish out of the sea, so Baal Hatturim; and thus it is interpreted in the Talmud k; and the gloss upon it says, this is the water raven, which is the same with the cormorant; for the cormorant is no other than “corvus aquaticus”, or water raven; [See comments on Zep 2:14]. The Septuagint render it by “catarrhactes”, which, according to the description of it l, resides by rocks and shores that hang over water; and when it sees fishes swimming in it, it will fly on high, and contract its feathers, and flounce into the water, and fetch out the fish; and so is of the same nature, though not the same creature with the cormorant. Aben Ezra observes, that some say this is a bird which casts its young as soon as born; and this is said of the “catarrhactes”, that it lets down its young into the sea, and draws them out again, and hereby inures them to this exercise m.
g Ray’s Ornithol. p. 63. apud Supplement to Chambers’s Dictionary in the word “Bubo”. h Calmet’s Dictionary in the word “Owl”. i Ut supra, (Apud Bochard. Heirozoic. par. 2. l. 2.) c. 20. col. 275. k Bab. Cholin, fol. 63. 1. l Gesner. apud Bochart. ut supra, (i) c. 21. col. 278. m Ibid.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(17) And the little owl.With the exception of the parallel passage, Deu. 14:16, this bird only occurs once more, in Psa. 102:6, where it is properly rendered in the Authorised Version by owl, omitting the word little, and is described as inhabiting deserted ruins. It not only feeds upon insects and molluscs, hares, rabbits, ducks, geese, and birds of prey, but devours mice and rats, which are especially detested by the Jews. Its flesh is, however, regarded by some tribes as very savoury. The name kos which is translated owl in the three above-named passages, is the common Hebrew word for cup, and it is supposed that it has been given to this bird because the sitting owl especially widens towards the upper part, thus imparting to it a cup-like appearance.
And the cormorant.Of all the web-footed birds which prey on fish, cormorants are the most voracious. They usually assemble in flocks on the rocks which overhang the sea, whence they drop down from the greatest height upon their victim, dive after it with the rapidity of a dart, and invariably gulp their prey head foremost. The cormorant is to be found in every climate, and is the destruction of all the finny tribe in any fresh-water river which he happens to occupy for a time. Hence he is called the feathered terror of the finny tribe. From the skill which he displays in casting himself down from a great height, and in plunging dart-like after his victim, he derives his Hebrew name, which denotes darter. The flesh of the cormorant, though rank, is eaten in some regions; whilst the skin, which is tough, is made into garments. The Hebrew name only occurs again in the duplicate catalogue of unclean animals in Deu. 14:17. By comp. Lev. 11:17-18 of the list before us with the parallel list in Deu. 14:16-17, it will be seen that though the two catalogues respectively enumerate in these two verses the same six birds, yet the order is different. The cormorant, which is here second in Lev. 11:17, is in Deuteronomy 14 sixth in Lev. 11:17. There can, therefore, hardly be any doubt that the verse before us has been disturbed, and that by placing the cormorant here sixth, as it is in Deuteronomy, we obtain the two species of owls naturally following each other, as is the case in the parallel catalogue.
And the great owl.Rather, the night owl, as the name in the original (yanshph) denotes night-bird. Besides the parallel passage in Deu. 14:16, this bird of prey only occurs again once more in Isa. 34:11, where the Authorised Version translates simply owl, omitting the word great, and where it is associated with the raven and other dismal birds as fit occupants of deserted ruins. According to the description of it which prevailed in the time of Christ, its eyes are directed forward, it utters frightful shrieks in the night, and has a face like a cat, and cheeks like a human being. In consequence of its repulsive visage and human appearance it was considered a bad omen if one saw an owl in a dream. That the two kinds of owls are here mentioned is probably owing to their disgusting habit of ejecting pellets, each one of which contains sometimes from four to seven skeletons of mice. Hence, instead of saying after his kind, to include the other varieties, the lawgiver enumerates them separately.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. The little owl Hebrew cos. The Authorized Version is evidently correct, though Bochart argues that cos means pouch, and hence that the pelican is intended. But Psa 102:6 decides that it is an owl of some kind. The little owl, to which species Tristram assigns cos, is by far the most abundant of all owls in Palestine. He is a grotesque and comical-looking little bird.
The cormorant Hebrew shalac. Since it occurs only here and in the parallel passage, Deu 14:17, it is difficult to identify. The Seventy render it by , the plunger, which Furst says is a species of pelican, which precipitates itself from high crags into the water after fish. The cormorant is, however, closely allied to the pelican, being of the same family group, so that our translators were not far astray. The common cormorant is very common on the coast, and comes up the Kishon, visiting also the Sea of Galilee.
The great owl Hebrew yansuph. Aside from the two catalogues of unclean birds, it is named but once, in Isa 34:11, in the prophetic desolation of Edom.
The Chaldee and Syriac are in favour of some kind of owl, but the Seventy and Vulgate have , Ibis religiosa, the sacred bird of Egypt. “But the passage in Isaiah plainly puts this interpretation out of the question, for the ibis is strictly a bird of the reedy marshes and mud flats, the very last to be thought of among the ruins of Petra.” It is doubtless the Egyptian eagle-owl, a large and noble-looking bird, that is signified in these passages, found in great numbers in the rock tombs of Petra. Tristram thinks that it is the Egyptian eagle owl.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 11:17. And the little owl The bittern. Bochart and Le Clerc.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 11:17 And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,
Ver. 17. And the cormorant. ] An unsatisfiable bird, that fitly resembleth the devil, who daily devours souls, and yet enlargeth his desires as hell.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
little owl, or simply “owl”. Only here, Deu 14:16, and Psa 102:6.
cormorant: or the “darter”.
great owl = Hebrew “night-bird”.