Bird
Birds are divided in the Mosaic law into two classes, (1) the clean (Lev 1:14–17; Lev 5:7–10; Lev 14:4–7), which were offered in sacrifice; and (2) the unclean (Lev 11:13–20). When offered in sacrifice, they were not divided as other victims were (Gen 15:10). They are mentioned also as an article of food (Deut 14:11). The art of snaring wild birds is referred to (Ps 124:7; Prov 1:17; Prov 7:23; Jer 5:27). Singing birds are mentioned in Ps 104:12; Eccl 12:4. Their timidity is alluded to (Hos 11:11). The reference in Ps 84:3 to the swallow and the sparrow may be only a comparison equivalent to, “What her house is to the sparrow, and her nest to the swallow, that thine altars are to my soul.”
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
