Deuteronomy 14:15

Summary

Deuteronomy 14:15 continues a list of unclean birds within the dietary regulations of chapter 14. It names four bird types — the bat ha'ya'anah ("daughter of the ostrich", H1323G/H3284), tachmas ("screech owl", H8464), shachaf ("gull", H7828), and netz ("falcon", H5322B) — the last qualified by the phrase "according to its kind."

Key words

• bat ("daughter of", H1323G) — feminine singular construct noun; forms part of a compound bird name meaning literally "daughter of the ya'anah."
• ya'anah ("ostrich", H3284) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009); the second element of the construct phrase naming the bird.
• tachmas ("screech owl", H8464) — masculine singular noun, marked as direct object by 'et (H0853) and preceded by the article, standing independently in the list.
• netz ("falcon", H5322B) — masculine singular noun; the final item in this segment of the list.
• minehu ("its kind", H4327 + H9023) — construct noun min ("kind") with third-person masculine singular suffix hu ("its"), attached via the preposition le ("to", H9005), producing the formula "according to its kind."

What the text says

The verse is structured as a sequence of noun phrases joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), each introduced by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), which itself carries no independent meaning but signals that each noun is a direct object of the governing verb from the preceding context (the prohibition against eating certain birds, stated earlier in the passage). Three of the four items — tachmas, shachaf, netz — follow the same pattern: article + noun, marked by 'et. The first item, bat ha'ya'anah, differs grammatically: it is a construct chain, "daughter of the ostrich," where bat (H1323G) governs ha'ya'anah (H3284) as its construct complement, producing a single compound designation for one bird species rather than two separate items.

The closing phrase le-mine-hu ("according to its kind") attaches only to netz ("falcon") in this verse, using the construct noun min ("kind", H4327) with the third-person suffix hu ("its", H9023). This formula, recurring throughout the chapter's bird list, indicates that the term covers a category of related species rather than one single bird, though the noun itself does not specify how broad that category is.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the list as struthionem ("ostrich"), noctuam ("owl"), larum ("gull"), accipitrem ("hawk"), largely matching the semantic range of the Hebrew terms in sequence. The Septuagint fragment provided (κύκνον, "swan"; εἶβιν, "ibis") does not correspond term-for-term to the Hebrew ya'anah, tachmas, shachaf, or netz, reflecting a different set of bird identifications in the Greek tradition for this portion of the list. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) generally follow the Hebrew grouping — ostrich, screech owl/owl, gull, and falcon/hawk "of any kind" — though the precise species identified by tachmas and shachaf vary between "screech owl"/"lechuza" and "owl"/"cuclillo" across versions.