Leviticus 11:19

Summary

This verse continues the Levitical list of unclean flying creatures, naming the chasidah ("stork", H2624), the anaphah ("heron", H0601), the dukhifat ("hoopoe", H1744), and the 'atalef ("bat", H5847). The phrase "according to its kind" is attached specifically to the heron within this string of items.

Key words

• chasidah ("stork", H2624) — feminine singular noun with definite article, first item in the series, introduced by the object marker 'et (H0853) and conjunction ve (H9002).
• anaphah ("heron", H0601) — feminine singular noun with definite article, placed immediately after chasidah without a preceding ve or 'et, unlike the other items in the list.
• minah ("its kind", H4327) — masculine singular noun in construct form, taking the pronominal suffix ה ("her", H9024); the construct + suffix combination produces "to its [feminine] kind," grammatically pointing back to anaphah.
• dukhifat ("hoopoe", H1744) — feminine singular noun, reintroduced with the full ve-'et-ha- sequence (conjunction + object marker + article), matching the pattern used for most items.
• 'atalef ("bat", H5847) — masculine singular noun, the only masculine noun in this stretch of otherwise feminine nouns, closing the list with ve-'et-ha-.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is a chain of direct objects, each normally marked by ve ("and") plus 'et (the object marker) plus the definite article before the noun — the pattern seen with dukhifat and 'atalef. However, between chasidah and anaphah this pattern breaks: anaphah appears directly after chasidah without its own ve or 'et, and it is anaphah — not chasidah — that carries the phrase le-minah ("to its kind"), built from the construct noun min plus the feminine suffix -ah ("her/its"). Grammatically, this ties the "kind" qualifier to the heron alone, distinguishing it syntactically from the stork, hoopoe, and bat, each of which stands as its own separate object in the list. The masculine gender of 'atalef also stands out morphologically against the feminine nouns surrounding it, though the text does not comment on this grammatically beyond the noun's inherent gender.

Differences between versions

The LXX includes an additional term, γλαῦκα ("owl"-type bird), not represented among the Hebrew words given here, and assigns the qualifier "and the like of it" (καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ) to χαραδριὸν ("plover"), rather than to the heron as the Hebrew does through le-minah. The Vulgate similarly attaches "according to its kind" (juxta genus suum) to charadrion, paralleling the LXX's placement rather than the Hebrew's attachment to anaphah.