Hawk

Narrator: Chris Genthree

Eurasian Kestrel — Falco Tinnunculus

The Hebrew word is nets, and is held to embrace the different species of hawk, of which there are several, as indeed is implied by the words “the hawk after his kind.” They were birds of prey and were pronounced to be unclean (Lev. 11:16¹⁶And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, (Leviticus 11:16); Deut. 14:15¹⁵And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, (Deuteronomy 14:15)). Some at least of the hawks are migratory, and this is supposed to be alluded to in Job 39:26²⁶Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? (Job 39:26), in the expression “stretch her wings toward the south.” The most common of the smaller hawks in Palestine is the Kestrel, Tinnunculus alaudarius.