Deuteronomy 14:13

Summary

This verse continues the list of forbidden birds in Deuteronomy 14, naming three raptor species — the ra'ah ("red kite"), the aiyah ("hawk"), and the daiyah ("black kite") — and closes with the formula "according to its kind," a phrase used throughout this list to include related sub-species.

Key words

• ra.'Ah ("red kite", H7201) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the first bird named in this verse.
• 'ai.Yah ("hawk", H0344) — feminine singular noun with definite article, joined to the previous word by the direct object marker 'Et (H0853).
• dai.Yah ("black kite", H1772) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the third bird in the series.
• mi.Na + h ("kind"/"its kind", H4327 + H9024) — masculine singular noun in construct form with a feminine pronominal suffix ("her/its"), producing the recurring formula "according to its kind."

What the text says

The verse is structured as a simple coordinated list of three bird names joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002): ha-ra'ah, ha-aiyah, and ha-daiyah. Each noun carries the definite article ha (H9009), marking these as specific, known categories rather than generic descriptions. The second item, ha-aiyah, is additionally marked with the direct object marker 'Et (H0853), which in Hebrew syntax signals a definite direct object but has no independent lexical meaning in translation — its presence here is a grammatical marker within the list rather than a semantic addition.

The final phrase, le-mina-h ("to its kind"), uses the preposition le (H9005, "to/according to") attached to the construct noun min ("kind", H4327) with a third-person feminine singular suffix h ("its", H9024). This construct-plus-suffix pattern is the standard closing formula for each bird-type clause in this chapter, indicating that the named species stands in for a broader category of similar birds, without specifying the biological boundaries of that category from a modern taxonomic standpoint.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew names three distinct birds (ra'ah, aiyah, daiyah) followed by "according to its kind." The LXX (Swete) renders only two terms, gypa ("vulture") and iktina ("kite"), followed by the phrase ta homoia autō ("the things like it"), which corresponds structurally to the Hebrew "according to its kind" but reduces the three Hebrew bird names to two Greek ones. The Vulgate gives three terms — ixion, vulturem, milvum — but ixion is a transliterated form rather than a Latin translation, and its correspondence to the Hebrew ra'ah differs from how the LXX groups the same birds. The modern versions (BSB, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew's three-part structure but differ from each other in bird identification (e.g., "falcon" vs. "halcón" for aiyah).