Swallow

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SWALLOW.—1. dĕrôr (Psa_84:3, Pro_26:2). The allusion to the nesting of this bird in the sanctuary and its swift (unalighting) flight fits the swallow. 2. ‘âgûr (Isa_38:14, Jer_8:7). See Crane. 3. sûs, sîs, should be tr. [Note: translate or translation.] as in RV [Note: Revised Version.] (Isa_38:14, Jer_8:7), ‘swallow’ instead of ‘crane’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ). See Crane. Some ten species of swallows and swifts or martins are common in the Holy Land.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

deror, from darar, "free, spontaneous motion" (Psa_84:3). (See BIRD.) 'Agur is probably the "crane", from ga'ar "to chatter", as Latin grus is related to garrio, in Isa_38:14, and sus (the Italian zisilla) the "swallow": "like a swallow or a crane." In Pro_26:2 the sense is "as the bird ("sparrow") by wandering, as the swallow (deror) by flying, never lights upon us, but flies to the winds, so the curse for which we have given no just cause shall not come" to hurt us; contradicting the common superstition that a curse brings its fulfilment, however undeserved; nay Providence shields His people from Satan's and his agents' malice. Balaam could not curse Israel whom God had blessed (Deu_23:5), nor Shimei David, nay God requited David good instead (2Sa_16:5-12; Psa_109:28).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Swallow. Hebrew, deror in Psa_84:3; Pro_26:2; Hebrew, 'agur in Isa_38:14; Jer_8:7; but "crane" is more probably, the true signification of 'agur, See Crane. The rendering of the Authorized Version for deror seems correct.
The characters ascribed in the passages, where the names occur , are strictly applicable to the swallow, namely, its swiftness of flight, its meeting in the buildings of the Temple, its mournful, garrulous note, and its regular migrations, shared indeed in common with several others. Many species of swallow occur in Palestine. All those common in England are found.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

swal?ō (דּרור, derōr; στρουθός, strouthós, in Proverbs and Psalms, χελιδών, chelidṓn, in Isa; Latin Hirundo rustica): A small long-winged bird of exhaustless flight, belonging to the family Hirundinidae. Derōr means the bird of freedom, and as the swallow is of tireless wing, it has been settled upon as fitting the requirements of the text. In the passages where ‛āghūr is translated ?swallow,? there is a mistake, that word referring to the crane. There is also a word, ṣūṣ or ṣı̄ṣ, that means a rushing sound, that is incorrectly translated ?swallow,? when it should be ?swift? (Cypselus apus).
These birds are near relatives and so alike on the wing as to be indistinguishable to any save a close observer. Yet the Hebrews knew and made a difference. The swallow is a trifle larger and different in color. It remains all the year, while in numerous instances the swift migrates and is a regular sign of returning spring. The swallow is of long and tireless flight. The swift is so much faster that the sound of its wings can be heard when passing. The swallow plasters a mud nest under eaves, on towers, belfries, and close to human habitations. The swifts are less intimate, building in deserted places, under bridges and on rocky crevices. The swallows utter constantly a rather sweet low note; the swifts chatter harshly and incessantly at their nests. These differences are observable to the most careless people. Scientists separate the birds on account of anatomical structure also. Despite this, the birds are confused in most of our translations.
?Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter;
I did moan as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward:
O Lord, I am oppressed, be thou my surety? (Isa_38:14).
Here ‛āghūr is translated ?swallow? and ṣūṣ ?crane,? which is clearly interchanging words, as the Arabic for ?swift? is ṣūṣ, the same as the Hebrew. The line should read, ?swift and crane.? And another reason for changing swallow to swift, in this passage, lies in the fact that of the two birds the swift is the incessant and raucous chatterer, and this was the idea in the mind of Hezekiah when he sang his Trouble Song. Another incorrect reference is found in Jer_8:7 : ?Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Yahweh.? Few swallows migrate. Returning swifts are one of the first signs of spring.
?As the sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying,
So the curse that is causeless alighteth not? (Pro_26:2).
This reference might apply to either, remembering always that the swift took its name from its exceptional flight, it being able to cover over 80 miles an hour. However, the swallow is credited with 800 miles in a night.
?Yea, the sparrow hath found her a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even thine altars, O Yahweh of hosts,
My King, and my God? (Psa_84:3).
Here is one instance, at least, where the swallow is at home and the translation correct. The swift might possibly have built in the temple: the swallow was sure to be there.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Fig. 324?Swift?Dururi
The species of this bird in Syria and Palestine, so far as they are known, appear all to be the same as those of Europe: they are,
The chimney swallow, with a forked tail, marked with a row of white spots.
The martin or common window swallow.
Sand-martin or shore-bird, not uncommon in northern Egypt, near the mouths of the Delta, and in southern Palestine, about Gaza, where it nestles in holes, even on the sea-shore.
The swift or black martin, distinguished by its larger size, short legs, very long wings, forked tail, and by all the toes of the feet turning forward: these, armed with small, crooked, and very sharp claws, enable the bird to hang against the sides of walls, but it cannot rise from the ground on account of the length of its wings.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

(noun)

Psa_84:3 (c) This bird is used to describe the apostasy of Israel. The altars of GOD should have been hot with fires for sacrifice. Instead they were so cold, neglected and unused that the birds felt free to make their nests in them.

Pro_26:2 (a) In this case the bird is used to illustrate GOD's definite dealings with men. The swallow flies for a purpose, she knows where she is going, and what she is doing. So it is when GOD punishes sinners. It is an intelligent punishment.

Isa_38:14 (a) Hezekiah uses the mournful sounds of the swallow to illustrate the sadness of his own heart.

(verb)

Isa_25:8 (b) When our Lord returns for His people, they will not die, but will be caught up alive into Heaven. A victorious ascension will take the place of the sadness of death.

Isa_28:7 (b) The drunkard is conquered by the liquor. He becomes a slave to that which he drinks. He is submerged under the terrible appetite for wine.

Isa_49:19 (b) In this prophecy the Lord is informing us that the people who conquered Israel will be driven far away from them, and they will no longer be engulfed by their enemies, but will be free to expand their country.

Lam_2:2 (b) The wrath of GOD in conquering Israel and pouring out His wrath over them is described in this way. Israel was helpless in the hands of an angry GOD, and He consumed them in His wrath. This is in contrast, or perhaps, in comparison with verse 16 in which we find that the enemies of Israel engulfed them. From GOD's standpoint He did it, but the enemies of Israel were the means and the agents by which GOD did it. (See also Jer_51:34).

Hos_8:8 (b) This action is used to describe the scattering of the Jews among the Gentiles in which they were absorbed after their dispersion.

Amo_8:4 (b) This describes the cruel power of the rich as they destroyed the poor, and the powerful as they destroyed the weak.

Oba_1:16 (b) The suicide of the heathen is described in this way. They drink iniquity, they live on their sins, they revel in rioting and drunkenness, and all of this serves to destroy the people.

Mat_23:24 (b) This figure describes the ease with which hypocrites believe impossible statements, and use them as though they were true.

1Co_15:54 (b) Here is a graphic description of the way in which death for the Christian will be abolished when CHRIST returns to catch up His church in the Rapture. The living Christians will be caught up to Heaven without dying.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


is the rendering, in the A.'V., of two Heb. words, and possibly the true meaning of a third. None of them, however, are very clearly identifiable ac: cording to modern scientific classification.
1. דנְרוֹר, deror, prop. liberty (as often rendered), i.e. strictly swiftness, occurs in two passages only with reference to a bird: Psa_84:3 (Hebrews 4), “The swallow [hath found] a nest;” Pro_26:2, “as the swallow by flying.” The ancient versions, in the former passage, understand a turtle-dove (Sept. τρωγών; Vulg. turtur), and in the latter a sparrow (στρουθός, passer). The radical signification of the word favors the idea that it may include the swallow, with other swiftly flying or free birds. The old commentators (so the rabbins), except Bochart (Hieroz. 2, 590 sq.), who renders it “columba fera;” apply it to the swallow, from the love of freedom in this bird and the impossibility of retaining it in captivity (De Wette, Umbreit, Ewald, Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 355). It is more likely that it was so named from its rapidity of flight. It probably, therefore, is-more properly the “swift” or “black martin,” and probably the dururi, mentioned by Forskal, as migrating to Alexandria from Upper Egypt about the end of October (Descript. Anim. p. 10). The frequenting of public buildings by this class of birds (Herod. 1; 159; Elian, V. H. 5, 17) is proverbial (Schultens, Monum. Vett. Arob. Carm. p. 1; Niebuhr, Reisen, 2, 270)., SEE SPARROW.
2. עָגוּר, agur, the twitterer, also occurs twice: Isa_38:14, “Like a crane [or] a swallow, so did I chatter;” Jer_8:7, “The turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time.” In both these passages it is associated with a third term, סוּס, sus (v.r. סַוס, sis), rendered “crane,” but in the former passage the connective ו(“and,” “or”) is wanting. The Sept. in Isaiah renders both words by the single one χελιδών, Vulg. pullus hirundinis; and in Jeremiah χελιδών ἀγροῦ, hirn no et ciconia; thus agreeing with the A.V. in denoting the swallow. Bochart, however (Hieroz. 2, 614 sq.), maintains that agur is the proper Hebrew designation of the crane. He compares the word with the Chald. כורכיא, kurkeya, the Arab. kur'ki, the Gr. γέρανος, the Welsh garan, and the Germ. kran, all of which are, like it, onomatopoetic. The twittering or querulous sound (צפצ) and the migratory habit are both characteristics, which meet in the crane; its cry is often compared by the poets with that of a person in distress or grief, and its migratory habits are frequently dwelt upon by ancient writers (Aristot. Anim. 8:12; Elian, Aim. 3, 13, 23; Pliny, 10:31; Quint. Curt. Smyrn. 2, 107; 13:102 sq.). This view has been followed by Rosenmüller, Maurer, and Henderson in their comments on Isaiah. Gesenius, though seeming to favor this view in his commentary on Isaiah, repudiates it in his Thesaurus, where he treats agûr as a verbal adjective signifying chattering or twittering, and regards it as an epithet of the swallow in the passage in, Isaiah, and as a designation of the swallow in that in Jeremiah. This is followed by Knobel (Der Prophet Jesaia erkldrt). It is in favor of this that in the former the copulative is wanting between the two words; but this may be explained as a case of asyndeton (as in Hos_6:3; Hab_3:11, etc.); whereas the insertion of the ו in the other passage seems clearly to prove that ‘agûr and sus denote different birds. Hitzig, indeed, proposes to strike out this copula, but without sufficient reason. Maurer derives עָגוּר from an Arabic root signifying turbavit aquam, so as to designate an aquatic bird; Knobel would trace it to another Arabic root meaning to mourn piteously. The סוּס, sts, if distinct from the עָגוּר, agûr is probably a large species of swallow, and the latter term, when not a' mere epithet of the former, probably signifies a peculiar kind of heron. Sis, however, may perhaps be an imitative name expressive of the swallow's voice or twitter; and in Dr. Kennicott's remark that in thirteen codices of Jeremiah he read Issi for sis we find the source of the ancient fable of the Egyptian Isis being transformed into a swallow. SEE CRANE.
Whatever be the precise rendering, the characters ascribed in the several passages where the names occur are strictly applicable to the swallow, viz. its swiftness of flight; its nesting in the buildings of the Temple, its mournful, garrulous note, and its regular migration, shared, indeed, in common with several others. We may observe that the garrulity of the swallow was proverbial among the ancients (see Nonn. Dionys. 2. 133, and Aristoph. Batr. 93). Hence its epithet κωτιλάς, “the twitterer,” κωτιλάδας δὲ τὰς χελιδόνας, Athen. 622.
See Anacr. 104, and ὀρθρογόη, Hesiod, Op. 566; and Virgil, Georg. 4:306. Although Aristotle, in his Natural History, and Pliny, following him, have given currency to the fable that many swallows bury themselves during winter, yet the regularity of their migration, alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah, was familiarly recognized by the ancients. See Anacreon (Od. 33). The ditty quoted by Athen. (360) from Theognis is well known ᾿Ηλθ᾿ ηλθε χελιδών καλὰς ωρας ἄγουσα, Καλοὺς ἐνιαυτούς, ἐπὶ γαστέρα λευκά, ἐπὶ νῶτα μέλαινα. So Ovid (Fast. 2, 853), “Praenuntia veris hirundo.”
The species of Syria and Palestine, so far as they are known, appear all to be the same as those of Europe. The following are the most abundant: 1. Cypselus spus the common swift or black martin, distinguished by its larger size, short legs, very long wings, forked tail, and by all the toes of the feet turning forward; these, armed with small, crooked, and very sharp claws, enable the bird to hang against the sides of walls, but it cannot rise from the ground on account of the length of its wings. The last two, but more particularly this species, we take to be the derar, on account of the name durari, already mentioned; which was most probably applied to it because the swift martin prefers towers, minarets, and ruins to build in, and is, besides, a bird to which the epithet “free” is particularly applicable. On the European coast of the Mediterranean it bears the name of barbota, and in several parts of France, including Paris, is known by the vulgar name of “le Juif,” the Jew; and, finally, being the largest and most conspicuous bird of the species in Palestine, it is the type of the heraldic martlet, originally applied in the science of blazon as the especial distinction of Crusader pilgrims, being borrowed from Oriental nations, where the bird is likewise honored with the term hagi, or pilgrim, to designate its migratory habits. The deror being mentioned as building o0 the altar seems to imply a greater generalization of the name than we have given it; for habits of nesting in immediate contact with man belong only to the house and window swallows; but in the present instance the expression is not meant to convey a literal sense, but must be taken as referring to the whole structure of the Temple, and in this view the swift bears that character more completely than the other. It is not necessary to dilate further on the history of a genus of birds so universally known. 2. Flirundo rustica, or domestica (Var. Cahirica), the chimney swallow, with a forked tail, marked with a row of white spots, whereof Hirundo Syriaca, if at all different, is most likely only a variety. 3. Chelidon urbica, the martin, or common window swallow. 4. Cotyle riparia, sand-martin, or shore-bird, not uncommon in Northern Egypt, near the mouths of the Delta, and in Southern Palestine, about Gaza, where it nestles in holes, even on the sea- shore. Besides these, the Eastern or russet swallow (Hirundo rufula, Tem.), which nestles generally in fissures in rocks, and the crag-martin (Cotyle rupestris, Linn.), which is confined to mountain gorges and desert districts, are also common. (See Ibis, 1, 27; 2, 386.) The crag-martin is the only member of the genus which does not migrate from Palestine in winter. Of the genus Cypselus (swift), besides the one first noted above, the splendid alpine swift (Cypselus melba, Linn.) may be seen in all suitable localities. A third species, peculiar, so far as is yet known, to the north-east of Palestine, has recently been described under the name of Cypselus Galileensis. See Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 204; Wood, Bible Annals, p. 381 sq.; Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, p. 206. SEE BIRD.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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