Deuteronomy 14:12

Summary

This verse opens the list of birds forbidden as food in the Deuteronomic dietary code. It names the first three: the nesher ("eagle", H5404), the peres ("bearded vulture", H6538), and the azniyah ("osprey", H5822).

Key words

• Zeh ("this", H2088) — demonstrative particle introducing the list, paired with the relative asher to form the phrase "this is that which."
• asher ("that/which", H0834A) — relative particle linking the demonstrative to the following negated verb clause.
• tokhelu ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, expressing a prohibited future/ongoing action addressed to the collective audience.
• Nesher ("eagle", H5404) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the first item catalogued.
• azniyah ("osprey", H5822) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the only feminine-form noun in this trio of bird names.

What the text says

The verse begins with the compound phrase ve-zeh asher ("and this is that which"), a common introductory formula in Hebrew legal-style lists that sets up a category before enumerating its members. The negation lo' ("not", H3808) governs the verb tokhelu ("you will eat", H0398), a qal imperfect second-person plural form. The imperfect aspect here carries a prohibitive or durative sense — not a single act but an ongoing rule addressed to the community as a whole ("you all shall not eat").

The prepositional phrase me-hem ("from them", H9006 + H9038) specifies that the prohibition applies to items "from among" a group, which the following nouns then identify. Each bird name — ha-nesher ("the eagle", H5404), ve-ha-peres ("and the bearded vulture", H6538), ve-ha-azniyah ("and the osprey", H5822) — carries the definite article, marking these as specific, known categories rather than generic examples. The conjunction ve ("and", H9002) links each item in simple sequence, producing a straightforward catalog structure rather than subordinate clauses. Grammatically, azniyah is feminine while nesher and peres are masculine, though this reflects grammatical gender assignment for the noun forms rather than any distinction in meaning within the list.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew peres (H6538) is rendered by the LXX as grypa ("griffin" or "vulture-type bird") and by the Vulgate as gryphem ("griffin"), while modern translations render it as "bearded vulture" (BSB) or "azor" (RV1909, meaning "goshawk" in Spanish) or "buitre" ("vulture", SBLIBRE). The Hebrew azniyah (H5822) appears in the LXX as haliaeton ("sea-eagle/osprey") and in the Vulgate as haliaeetum, matching "osprey" in BSB and SBLIBRE, but RV1909 gives "esmerejón" ("merlin," a small falcon), showing a divergence in how this bird term has been identified across translation traditions.