Deuteronomy 14:17
in Deuteronomy 14the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant,
KJV
And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
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This verse in Deuteronomy 14
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Of all the creatures that live in the water
on Deuteronomy 14:9-20
Water creatures get a test and no list, “fins and scales”, so the rule reaches species nobody has named. The birds are handled the other way, by naming what is forbidden.
This site's exposition
the desert owl, the osprey
The cormorant stands between the little owl and the great owl at Leviticus 11:17, and here it closes the verse after the osprey. Clement of Alexandria read lists like this as frugality made a matter of law, leaving few things fit to eat. Only the order has moved.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Of all clean fowls you may eat. [4.] They are further forbidden, First, To eat the flesh of any creature that died of itself, because the blood was not separated from it, and, besides the ceremonial uncleanness which it lay under (from Lev. xi. 39 ), it is not wholesome food, nor ordinarily used among us, except by the poor.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
gier eagle--The Hebrew word Rachemah is manifestly identical with Rachamah, the name which the Arabs give to the common vulture of Western Asia and Egypt (Neophron percnopterus). [See on Le 11:18]. cormorant--rather, the plungeon; a seafowl. [See on Le 11:17].
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
התנשמת — This is the chauve-souris in old French; (English = bat).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהַקָּאָ֥ת | vehakaat | and the desert owl | H6893 → | |
| וְאֶֽת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָרָחָ֖מָה | harachamah | the Egyptian vulture <towards> | H7360 → | |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַשָּׁלָֽךְ׃ | hashalakh | the cormorant | H7994 → |
וְהַקָּאָ֥תand the desert owl
vehakaatH6893 →
וְאֶֽת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
הָרָחָ֖מָהthe Egyptian vulture <towards>
harachamahH7360 →
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
הַשָּׁלָֽךְ׃the cormorant
hashalakhH7994 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.