stork

The Hebrew that is translated as “stork” in English is translated in Maan as “big water bird,” as the stork is not locally know. (Source: Don Slager)

In the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) with mulungu wachilendo it is translated as kakowa or “egret.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

 

There is almost complete agreement that chasidah is the stork. There are two species of stork that pass over Israel, where they stay for a few days as they migrate from Europe to Africa and vice versa. These are the White Stork Ciconia ciconia and the Black Stork Ciconia nigra.

Both of these storks are large birds with long legs and long necks. They are heavier than most herons or cranes. The white stork has a white body, black wings, and a red beak and legs. The black stork is a glossy brownish black color with a white belly. It also has a red beak and legs. These storks migrate from central and eastern Europe to East and Central Africa, occasionally reaching Zimbabwe and parts of South Africa in good rainy seasons. Both types spend most of the time on the ground or in shallow water searching for food. The white stork eats mainly locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects, as well as frogs, lizards, and the chicks of ground-nesting birds. The black stork prefers fish and frogs but also eats the same things as the white stork.

When storks are about to move to another feeding ground, they usually soar around in upward currents of air called thermals, reaching great heights, and then they soar off in the direction they have chosen, conserving their energy by only occasionally beating their wings.

It is possible that the name chasidah is derived from the word chesed, meaning “kindness” or “faithfulness”, perhaps a reference to the fact that they seem to take especially good care of their young when nesting.

Storks of various species are found in most parts of the world, and many of them have migrating habits. There are species of stork that migrate from Europe to India and the Far East, some that migrate from Southeast Asia to Australia, and one, the Abdim’s Stork Ciconia abdimii, which migrates from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe and Botswana, signaling the arrival of the rainy season wherever it goes.

In the few areas where storks are not known, a borrowed word or a transliteration can be used, perhaps with a footnote to indicate that this is a big bird that migrates long distances over Israel.

White stork, Wikimedia Commons
Black stork, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also snow (color).

heron

There is little doubt that ’anafah refers to any type of heron found in the land of Israel, such as the Gray Heron Ardea cinerea, the Purple Heron Ardea purpurea, the Squacco Heron Ardeola ralloides, and the Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax. However, since the name is derived from a Hebrew root meaning nose, there are many scholars who feel that the word originally was used for any waterside bird with a prominent beak. This would include not only herons but also ibises, egrets, and perhaps bitterns and spoonbills.

Herons are fairly large birds with long necks, long beaks, and usually with long legs as well. They stand or walk slowly in shallow water in rivers, dams, ponds, or lakes looking into the water for small fish, which they catch by suddenly darting their heads into the water. They fly with slow wing-beats.

They are listed as an unclean bird.

Herons and egrets are widespread around the world, and finding a local equivalent should not be a problem.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

hoopoe

There is unanimous agreement today about the meaning of this word.

The Hoopoe Upupa epops is so named to represent its call, which has been described as hoop-hoop, poop-poop, or similar sounds. Its name is even similar in some African languages, such as Shona mupupu and Tswana pupupu. [The German name Wiedehopf (ˈviːdəhɔpf/) is onomatopoetic as well. (Source: Zetzsche)]

It is a bird about the size of a large dove, with a ginger colored head and body, and with wings and a tail that have black and white stripes. It has a long slender beak that curves slightly, and a long crest on its head, which it can erect into a fan shape.

The hoopoe has rather floppy wings and rises and falls as it flies. As soon as it lands, it erects its fan-shaped crest briefly. It spends a lot of time walking around on the ground looking for food. It nests in any suitable hole in a tree or in the ground and may raise two or three broods in a season. Unlike most other birds, it does not remove the nestlings’ droppings from the nest, and the nest smells badly as a result. Hoopoes eat insects and their larvae, termites, worms, small frogs, and beetles.

It is listed as an unclean bird.

The hoopoe is found all over Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East; across tropical Asia in savannah, but not rain forest areas; in Japan; and in southern Europe. In these areas a local name should not be difficult to find. Elsewhere, a name that approximates its call can usually be used, such as “hoopoo bird”, “pupu bird”, or something similar.

Hoopoe, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Deuteronomy 14:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 14:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “marabou stork and storks of all kinds, swallows and bats.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “the crane, all kinds of white herons, the osprey and the bat.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “But never to eat the eagles, ravens, birds that eat the corpse of man or dead-animal, hawks, owls, birds-of-prey, birds that grab/pounce/swoop-down fishes, a-sort-of-white-herons, storks and bats.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “storks, herons, hoopoes, and bats, you must not eat.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 14:11-18

Eagle: this bird is quite common in the Old Testament.

Vulture: see also Lev 11.18; Psa 102.6; Pro 30.17; Lam 4.19; Hos 8.1; Zeph 2.14.

Osprey: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “black vulture.” See also Lev 11.13.

For the birds in verse 12 Revised English Bible has “griffon-vulture, black vulture, bearded vulture.”

In verse 13 the translations go their various ways: New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New International Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Bible en français courant have three different kinds of birds instead of the two in Revised Standard Version. This is due to a problem in the Hebrew text, which does have three separate words. S.R. Driver and others maintain that the first word (raʾah) is a mistake; it is not found elsewhere in the Bible, and the third word (daʾyah) is a correction of the first one. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, however, has three birds, “the kite, the falcon, and the buzzard”; and New International Version has “the red kite, the black kite, the falcon.”

Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends that two birds be listed, “the black kite and the red kite”; translators should feel free to follow the Revised Standard Version wording, the buzzard, the kite, after their kinds, if this is appropriate in their language.

Buzzard: this bird does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Kite: see also Lev 11.14; Isa 34.15.

After their kinds: this means “of all varieties,” “of every kind there is.”

For raven in verse 14 Revised English Bible has “every kind of crow,” and Good News Translation has simply “crows.” See also Gen 8.7; Lev 11.15; 1 Kgs 17.4, 6; Psa 147.9; Pro 30.17; Job 38.41; Song 5.11; Isa 34.11; Zeph 2.14.

For the first three birds in verse 15, New International Version has “horned owl, screech owl, gull”; Revised English Bible has “desert owl, short-eared owl, long-eared owl”; and New Jerusalem Bible has for the second and third birds “screech owl, seagull.”

Ostrich: see also Lev 11.16; Job 30.29; 39.13; Isa 13.21; 34.13; 43.20; Jer 50.39; Lam 4.3; Micah 1.8.

Night hawk: see also Lev 11.16.

Sea gull: see also Lev 11.16.

Hawk: see Lev 11.18; Job 39.26; Isa 34.11.

For the three birds in verse 16, Revised English Bible has “tawny owl, screech owl, little owl”; New Jerusalem Bible has “owl, barn owl, ibis”; for the third bird New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh have “white owl.”

The terms little owl and great owl do not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament; “owl” is found in Lev 11.17; Psa 102.6; Isa 34.11, 15; Zeph 2.14.

Water hen: see also Lev 11.18. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “white owl.”

As suggested above, it may be necessary in certain languages to combine all the birds in this verse as “all kinds of owls.”

Translations differ widely in the identification of the three birds in verse 17. For pelican New Revised Standard Version and New International Version have “desert owl,” and Revised English Bible “horned owl”; for carrion vulture New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “bustard,” New Jerusalem Bible “white vulture,” and Revised English Bible and New International Version “osprey”; for cormorant Revised English Bible has “fisher owl.”

Pelican: see Lev 11.18.

Carrion vulture appears nowhere else in the Old Testament.

Cormorant appears also in Lev 11.17.

The translations being cited all agree on the four birds of verse 18, with the exception of Revised English Bible, which instead of heron has “cormorant.” (Of course the bat is not a bird, but it was considered one by the Hebrews.)

Stork: see also Lev 11.19; Psa 104.17; Jer 8.7; Zech 5.9.

Heron … hoopoe … bat: see also Lev 11.19.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .