The birds of the Bible were the same species and form as exist in Palestine today. Because of their wonderful coloring, powerful flight, joyous song, and their similarity to humanity in home-making and the business of raising their young, birds have been given much attention, and have held conspicuous place since the dawn of history. When the brain of man was young and more credulous than today he saw omens, signs and miracles in the characteristic acts of birds, and attributed to them various marvelous powers: some were considered of good omen and a blessing, and some were bad and a curse.
1. Earliest Mention:
The historians of the Bible frequently used birds in comparison, simile, and metaphor. They are first mentioned in Ge 7:14-15, "They, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort." This is the enumeration of the feathered creatures taken into the ark to be preserved for the perpetuation of species after the flood abated. They are next found in the description of the sacrifice of Abram, where it was specified that he was to use, with the animals slaughtered, a turtle dove and a young pigeon, the birds not to be divided. It is also recorded that the birds of prey were attracted by the carcasses as described in Ge 15:9-11, "And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away." Palestine abounded in several varieties of "doves" (which see) and their devotion to each other, and tender, gentle characteristics had marked them as a loved possession of the land; while the clay cotes of pigeons were reckoned in establishing an estimate of a man's wealth.
2. Used in Sacrifice:
In an abandon of gratitude to God these people offered of their best-loved and most prized possessions as sacrifice; and so it is not surprising to find the history of burnt offerings frequently mentioning these birds which were loved and prized above all others. Their use is first commanded in Le 1:14-17, "And if his oblation to Yahweh be a burnt-offering of birds, then he shall offer his oblation of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off its head , and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be drained out on the side of the altar; and he shall take away its crop with the filth thereof, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes." Again in Le 5:7-10, we read: "And if his means suffice not for a lamb, then he shall bring his trespass-offering for that wherein he hath sinned, two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, unto Yahweh; one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering." Throughout the Bible these birds figure in the history of sacrifice (Le 12:8; 14:4-8; Nu 6:10, etc.).
3. Other References:
The custom of weaving cages of willow wands, in which to confine birds for pets, seems to be referred to when Job asks (41:5):
"Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?
Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?"
See Job 12:7:
"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee."
David was thinking of the swift homeward flight of an eagle when he wrote:
"In Yahweh do I take refuge:
How say ye to my soul,
Flee as a bird to your mountain?" (Ps 11:1).
His early days guarding the flocks of his father no doubt suggested to him the statement found in Ps 50:11:
"I know all the birds of the mountains;
And the wild beasts of the field are mine"
(the Revised Version margin, "in my mind").
In describing Lebanon, the Psalmist wrote of its waters:
"By them the birds of the heavens have their habitation;
They sing among the branches" (Ps 104:12).
He mentioned its trees:
"Where the birds make their nests:
As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house" (Ps 104:17).
See also Ps 78:27; 148:10.
The origin of the oft-quoted phrase, "A little bird told me," can be found in Ec 10:20: "Revile not the king, no, not in thy thought; and revile not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the heavens shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." In a poetical description of spring in the Song of Solomon, we read:
"The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land"
(Song 2:12).
In his prophecy concerning Ethiopia, Isaiah wrote, "They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them" (Isa 18:6). In foretelling God's judgment upon Babylon, Isaiah (Isa 46:11) refers to Cyrus as "a ravenous bird (called) from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country"; "probably in allusion to the fact that the griffon was the emblem of Persia; and embroidered on its standard" (HDB, I, 632); (see EAGLE). Jer 4:25 describes the habit of birds, which invariably seek shelter before an approaching storm. In His denunciation of Israel, Yahweh questions, in Jer 12:9, "Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her round about?" When Jeremiah threatened the destruction of Jerusalem, he wrote that Yahweh would "cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the heavens" (Jer 19:7): that is, He would leave them for the carrion eaters. Ezekiel threatens the same fate to the inhabitants of Gog (Eze 39:4,17). Hosea (Eze 9:11) prophesies of Ephraim, "Their glory shall fly away like a bird." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus mentions the birds, as recorded by Mt 6:26: "Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?" In the sermon from the boat where He spoke the parable of the Sower He again mentioned the birds: "As he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured them" (Mt 13:4). Mark describes the same sermon in Mr 4:4, and Mr 4:32 quotes the parable of the Mustard Seed: "Yet when it is sown, (it) groweth up, and becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof." In Lu 8:5, Luke gives his version of the parable of the Sower, and in Lu 13:19 of the Mustard Seed. See also Re 19:17,21. These constitute all the important references to birds in the Bible, with the exception of a few that seem to belong properly under such subjects as TRAP; NET; CAGE, etc..
Gene Stratton-Porter