the horned owl, the screech owl, and the gull, any kind of hawk,
Parallel translations
- KJV And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
- BSB the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
- NKJV the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind;
- NASB the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in its kind,
- NLT the eagle owl, the short-eared owl, the seagull, hawks of all kinds,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The horned owl, screech owl, gull, and hawks are forbidden. The list of unclean birds continues.
Overview
These birds, largely nocturnal hunters and scavengers, fit the pattern of creatures linked to death and desolation. Precise modern identification of each Hebrew name is uncertain, but the categories are clear enough for obedience. The enumeration kept Israel's holiness concrete and constant, pointing beyond ritual to the heart-purity God works through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 13:21–22But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
- Phil 3:18–19For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,
- Eph 5:7–11Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
- John 3:19–21This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
- Eph 2:2–3in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
- Deut 14:15–18the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk after its kind,
- Ps 102:6I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
- 1 Th 5:5–7You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,
- Eph 4:18–19being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts;
- Rev 18:2He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
- Isa 34:11–15But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 11:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.