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Bible Dictionaries
Owl
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or There are several varieties of this species, all too well known to need a particular description. They are nocturnal birds of prey, and have their eyes better adapted for discerning objects in the evening or twilight than in the glare of day.
1. כזס ], Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:16; Psalms 102:6 , is in our version rendered "the little owl." Aquila, Theodotion, Jerom, Kimchi, and most of the older interpreters, are quoted to justify this rendering. Michaelis, at some length, supports the opinion that it is the horned owl. Bochart, though with some hesitation, suspected it to be the onocrotalus, a kind of pelican, because the Hebrew name signifies cup, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw; but there are good reasons for supposing that bird to be the קאת of the next verse. Dr. Geddes thinks this bird the cormorant; and as it begins the list of water fowl, and is mentioned always in the same contexts with קאת , confessedly a water bird, his opinion may be adopted.
2. ינשופּ? , Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:16; Isaiah 34:11 . In the two first places our translators render this "the great owl," which is strangely placed after the little owl, and among water birds. "Our translators," says the author of "Scripture Illustrated," "seem to have thought the owl a convenient bird, as we have three owls in two verses." Some critics think it means a species of night bird, because the word may be derived from נשפּ? , which signifies the twilight, the time when owls fly about. But this interpretation, says Parkhurst, seems very forced; and since it is mentioned among water fowls, and the LXX have, in the first and last of those texts, rendered it by ιβις , the ibis, we are disposed to adopt it here, and think the evidence strengthened by this, that in a Coptic version of Leviticus 11:17 , it is called ip or hip, which, with a Greek termination, would very easily make ιβις .
3. קפון , which occurs only in Isaiah 34:15 , is in our version rendered "the great owl."
4. לילית , Isaiah 34:14 , in our version "the screech owl." The root signifies night; and as undoubtedly a bird frequenting dark places and ruins is referred to, we must admit some kind of owl.
A place of lonely desolation, where The screeching tribe and pelicans abide, And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,
And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Owl'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/o/owl.html. 1831-2.
