Raven

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RAVEN (‘ôrçb, Arab. [Note: Arabic.] ghurâb).—An ‘unclean’ bird (Lev_11:15, Deu_14:14), numbers of which may always be seen gathered, together with the dogs, around the carrion thrown out into the valley of Hinnom (cf. Pro_30:17). Its glossy plumage is referred to in Son_5:11; it often dwells in the wilderness (Isa_34:11), and yet God cares for and watches over it (Job_38:41, Psa_147:8, Luk_12:24). The name ‘ôrçb is doubtless generic, and includes all the eight species of the Corvidæ known in Palestine.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


'oreb, from a root "black," including the crow. Not allowed as food (Lev_11:15). Of the order Insessores, family Corvidae. Gen_8:7, Noah's first messenger from the ark, which kept going forth and returning, resting on the ark but never entering, feeding on the floating carcasses; type of the carnal soul that having left God finds no rest (Isa_57:20-21); like Satan (Job_1:7; Job_2:2). Ravens fed Elijah at the brook Cherith (1Ki_17:4; 1Ki_17:6) when cut off from intercourse with men, who might have betrayed him to Ahab. When even the voracious ravens were against their nature made to care for him more than for themselves, his confidence was strengthened in Jehovah's illimitable resources to help him in his coming conflict with the idolatrous priests, dislikes the raven as of ill omen God cares for it (Job_38:41; Psa_147:9; Luk_12:24).
The raven is singled out as exemplifying God's care for His creatures because of their restless flying in search for food to satisfy their voracious appetites. With their hoarse cry they unconsciously appeal to their Maker and Preserver for their necessary food, and never in vain, though they neither sow nor reap neither have storehouse nor barn. A lesson of faith to us. The ravens build their nests in solitary "valleys," hence a sign of desolation (Isa_34:11). Birds of prey attack the eye especially. The mocker of his father shall die a death of shame, and be a prey to the "raven of the valley" (Pro_30:17). The shrewd and ill visage of the raven, its mourning hue, its solitary haunts, harsh croak, instant scenting of premonitory decomposition even before death, made it be regarded as of ill omen. The glossy steel-blue black of the raven is the image of the bridegroom's locks (Son_5:11).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Raven. (black). The Hebrew, oreb is applied to the several species of the crow family, a number of which are found in Palestine. The raven belongs to the order Insessores , family Corvidae. (It resembles the crow, but is larger, weighing three pounds; its black color is more iridescent, and it is gifted with greater sagacity. "There is something weird and shrewd, in the expression of the raven's countenance, a union of cunning and malignity, which may have contributed to give it, among widely-revered nations, a reputation for preternatural knowledge."
One writer says that the smell of death is so grateful to them that, when in passing over sheep, a tainted smell is perceptible, they cry and croak vehemently. It may be that in passing over a human habitation, if a sickly or cadaverous smell arises, they should make it known by their cries, and so has arisen the idea that the croaking of a raven is the premonition of death. ? Editor).
A raven was sent out by Noah from the ark. Gen_8:7. This bird was not allowed as food by the Mosaic law. Lev_11:15. Elijah was cared for by ravens. 1Ki_17:4; 1Ki_17:6. They are expressly mentioned as instances of God's protecting love and goodness. Job_38:41; Luk_12:24. The raven's carnivorous habits, and especially his readiness to attack the eye, are alluded to in Pro_30:17. To the fact of the raven being a common bird in Palestine, and to its habit of flying restlessly about in constant search for food to satisfy its voracious appetite, may perhaps be traced the reason for its being selected by our Lord, and the inspired writers, as the especial object of God's providing care.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


rā?v'n (ערב, ‛ōrēbh; κόραξ, kórax; Latin Corvus corax): A large family of the smaller birds of prey belonging to the genus Corvus corax. A bird of such universal distribution that it is known from Iceland to Japan, all over Asia, Europe and Africa, but almost extinct and not of general distribution in our own country. In no land is it more numerous than in Palestine In general appearance it resembles the crow, but is much larger, being almost two feet long, of a glossy black, with whiskers around the beak, and rather stiff-pointed neck feathers. A bird exhibiting as much intelligence as any, and of a saucy, impudent disposition, it has been an object of interest from the beginning. It has been able to speak sentences of a few words when carefully taught, and by its uncanny acts has made itself a bird surrounded by superstition, myth, fable, and is connected with the religious rites of many nations. It is partially a carrion feeder, if offal or bodies are fresh; it also eats the young of other birds and very small animals and seeds, berries and fruit, having as varied a diet as any bird. It is noisy, with a loud, rough, emphatic cry, and its young are clamorous feeding time.
Aristotle wrote that ravens drove their young from their location and forced them to care for themselves from the time they left the nest. This is doubtful. Bird habits and characteristics change only with slow ages of evolution. Our ravens of today are, to all intents, the same birds as those of Palestine in the time of Moses, and ours follow the young afield for several days and feed them until the cawing, flapping youngsters appear larger than the parents. In Pliny's day, ravens had been taught to speak, and as an instance of their cunning he records that in time of drought a raven found a bucket containing a little water beside a grave and raised it to drinking level by dropping in stones.
Palestine has at least 8 different species of ravens. This bird was the first sent out by Noah in an effort to discover if the flood were abating (Gen_8:6-8). Because it partially fed on carrion it was included among the abominations (see Lev_11:15; Deu_14:14). On 1Ki_17:4-6, see ELIJAH and the present writer's Birds of the Bible, 401-3. Among the marvels of creation and providence in Job_38:41, we have this mention of the raven,
?Who provideth for the raven his prey,
When his young ones cry unto God,
And wander for lack of food??
The answer to this question is in Psa_147:9 :
?He giveth to the beast his food,
And to the young ravens which cry.?
Both these quotations point out the fact that the young are peculiarly noisy. In Pro_30:17 it is indicated that the ravens, as well as eagles, vultures and hawks, found the eye of prey the vulnerable point, and so attacked it first. The Hebrew ‛ōrēbh means ?black,? and for this reason was applied to the raven, so the reference to the locks of the bridegroom in the Song of Solomon becomes clear (Son_5:11). The raven is one of the birds indicated to prey upon the ruins of Edom (Isa_34:11). The last reference is found in Luk_12:24 : ?Consider the ravens, that they sow not, neither reap; which have no store-chamber nor barn; and God feedeth them.? This could have been said of any wild bird with equal truth.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


The raven is very generally confounded with the carrion crow, but though very similar is quite distinct from it. Its size is larger, its black color more iridescent; it is gifted with greater sagacity; is naturally observant and solitary, while the crow is gregarious in its habits; lives in pairs; has a most acute scent; and flies to a great height.
Whether the raven of Palestine is the common species, or the Corvus Montanus of Temminck, is not quite determined; for there is of the ravens, or greater form of crows, a smaller group including two or three others, all similar in manners, and unlike the carrion crows, which are gregarious, and seemingly identical in both hemispheres. Sometimes a pair of ravens will descend without fear among a flight of crows, take possession of the carrion that may have attracted them, and keep the crows at a distance till they themselves are gorged. The habits of the whole genus render it unclean in the Hebrew law; and the malignant, ominous expression of the raven, together with the color of its plumage, powers of voice, and solitary habits, are the causes of that universal and often superstitious attention with which mankind have ever regarded it. This bird is the first mentioned in the Bible, as being sent forth by Noah out of the ark on the subsiding of the waters; and in 1Ki_17:4, ravens bring flesh and bread at morning and eve to the prophet Elijah.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


1Ki_17:4 (c) This is a type of any person on earth, but particularly an unsaved person, who naturally would not care for GOD nor for His people, but who is compelled to minister to GOD's servant against his own nature.

Isa_34:11 (c) This is a picture of the unsaved who dwell in desolate places and who have no interest or care for the things of GOD. The raven was an unclean bird.

Luk_12:24 (b) Here we see a symbol of GOD's kindness and care. The raven is a worthless bird. It has no particular value and is not cared for by human beings. Yet GOD meets its needs. So the Lord cares for His own who are certainly far better and more to be considered than this unclean bird. Note also that the raven is black. (Sinners are black in GOD's sight). Its legs conform in color to its surroundings. Those who live along the ocean have white legs; those around black soil have black legs, those in sandy regions have gray legs. So the sinner conforms his walk to the society in which he moves but he stays black all the time. The little young ravens are as black as their parents. Children are sinners just as their parents. Only GOD could change a raven and make it white and make it sing. (Only GOD can change a sinner into a singing saint).
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Raven
(עֹרֵב, ‘oseb'; Sept. and New Test. κρόαξ, Vulg. corvUS), the well- known bird of that name which is mentioned in various passages in the Bible. There is no doubt that the Heb. ‘oreb is correctly translated, the old versions agreeing on the point, and the etymology, from a root (עָרִב) signifying “to be black,” favoring this rendering. A raven was sent out by Noah from the ark to see whether the waters were abated (Gen_8:7). This bird was not allowed as food by the Mosaic law (Lev_11:15); the word ‘oreb is doubtless used in a generic sense, and includes other species of the genus Corvus, such as the crow (C. corone), and the hooded crow (C. cornix). Ravens were the means, under the divine command, of supporting the prophet Elijah at the brook Cherith (1 Kings 17:4, 6). They are expressly mentioned as instances of God's protecting love and goodness (Job_38:41; Luk_12:24; Psa_143:9). They are enumerated with the owl, the bittern, etc., as marking the desolation of Edom (Isa_34:11). “The locks of the beloved” are compared to the glossy blackness of the raven's plumage (Song of Solomon v, II). The raven's carnivorous habits, and especially his readiness to attack the eye, are alluded to in Pro_30:17. SEE OREB.
The Sept. and Vulg. differ materially from the Hebrew and our A.V. in (Gen_8:7; for whereas in the Hebrew we read “that the raven went forth to and fro [from the ark] until the waters were dried up,” in the two old versions named above, together with the Syriac, the raven is represented as “not returning until the water was dried from off the earth.” On this subject the reader may refer to Houbigant (Not. Crit 1, 12), Bochart (Hieroz. ii, 801), Rosenmuller (Schol. in V. T.), Kalisch (Genesis), and Patrick (Commentary), who shows the manifest incorrectness of the Sept. in representing the raven as keeping away from the ark while the waters lasted, but as returning to it when they were dried up. The expression “to and fro” clearly proves that the raven must have returned to the ark at intervals. The bird would doubtless have found food in the floating carcasses of the deluge, but would require a more solid resting- ground than they could afford. SEE DELUGE.
The subject of Elijah's sustenance at Cherith by means of ravens has given occasion to much fanciful speculation. It has been attempted to show that the ‘orebim (“ravens”) were the people of Orbo, a small town near Cherith; this theory has been well answered by Reland (Palest. ii, 913). Others have found in the ravens merely merchants; while Michaelis has attempted to show that Elijah merely plundered the ravens' nests of hares and other game! Keil (Comment. on 1 Kings 17) makes the following just observation: “The text knows nothing of bird-catching and nest-robbing, but acknowledges the Lord and Creator of the creatures, who commanded the ravens to provide his servant with bread and flesh.” It has also been well replied that an animal unfit for food or sacrifice did not necessarily defile what it touched. “An ass was as unclean as a raven; yet no one was polluted by riding on an ass, or by eating that which an ass had carried.” An objection more to the point would be that the flesh which ravens would bring would leave the prophet no opportunity of being satisfied that it was such as he could legally receive; either that it was the flesh of a clean beast, or, if so, that it had not died with the blood undrained. But to this, too, the answer is obvious: if Jehovah could so restrain and overrule the instincts of these voracious birds as to make them minister to his servant, he could also take care that they should select nothing but what was fit, and he could give Elijah confidence that it was so. Some, however, understand Arabs to be there meant. SEE ELIJAH.
The raven belongs to the order Insessores, family Corvidoe. The raven is so generally confounded with the carrion crow that even in the works of naturalists the figure of the latter has sometimes been substituted for that of the former, and the manners of both have been mixed up together. They are, it is true, very similar, belonging to the same Linnaean genus, Corvus, nand having the same intensely black color; but the raven is the larger, weighing about three pounds; has proportionally a smaller head, and a bill fuller and stouter at the point. Its black color is more iridescent (hence the comparison to the bridegroom's locks, Song of Solomon v, 11), with gleams of purple passing into green, while that of the crow is more steel- blue; the raven is also gifted with greater sagacity; may be taught to articulate words; is naturally observant and solitary; lives in pairs; has a most acute scent; and flies to a great height. Unlilke the crow, which is gregarious in its habits, the raven will not even suffer its young, from the moment they can shift for themselves, to remain within its haunt; and, therefore, though a bird found in nearly all countries, it is nowhere abundant (Bochart, Hieroz. ii, 796 sq.; Kimchi on Psa_14:7). Whether the raven of Palestine is the common species, or the Corvus montanus of Temminck, is not quite determinedl; for there is of the ravens, or greater form of crows, a smaller group including two or three others, all similar in manners, and unlike the carrion crows (Corvus corrone, Linn.), which are gregarious, and seemingly identical in both hemispheres. Sometimes a pair of ravens will descend without fear among a flight of crows, take possession of the carrion that may have attracted them, and keep the crows at a distance till they themselves are gorged. (Comp. Horace, Ep. i, 16, 48; Aristoph. Thesmoph. 942). The habits of the whole genus typified by the name ‘oreb render it unclean in the Hebrew law; and the malignant, ominous expression of the raven, together with the color of its plumage, powers of voice, and solitary habits, are the causes of that universal and often superstitious attention with which mankind have ever regarded it.
In the mythological history of the Gentiles, we find the appellation of Ravens bestowed upon an oracular order of priesthood. In Egypt, it seems, the temples of Ammon were served by such — perhaps those priests that occur in the catacombs playing on harps, and clothed in black. More than one temple in Greece had similar raven priests. It was the usual symbol of slaughter among the Scandinavians; and a raven banner belonged to the Danes. and also to the Saxons; one occurs amomng the ensigns of the Normans in the Bayeux tapestry; and it was formerly a custom in the Benedictine abbeys on the Continent to maintain in a very large cage a couple of ravens, where several are recorded to have lived above fifty years. The Raven of the Sea, that ominous bird in Northern mythology, is properly the cormorant — the morvran of the Celts. Jewish and Arabian writers tell strange stories of this bird and its cruelty to its young; hence, say some, the Lord's express care for the young ravens after they had been driven out of the nests by the parent birds; but this belief in the raven's want of affection to its young is entirely without foundation. To the fact of the raven being a common bird in Palestine, and to its habit of flying restlessly about in constant search for food to satisfy its voracious appetite, may, perhaps, be traced the reason for its being selected by our Lord and the inspired writers as the especial object of God's providing care.
There is something weird and shrewd in the expression of the raven's countenance; a union of cunning and malignity, which may have contributed to give it among widely severed nations, and in remote ages, a character for preternatural knowledge. Its black hue — the hue of night and of mourning — its recluse, solitary suspicion, and its harsh croak have no doubt increased its uncanny reputation. Certain it is that the “infausta cornix” has long been feared and hated as the messenger of evil and the prognosticator of death, while the Romans dedicated it to Apollo as the god of divination. An anonymous writer familiar with the habits of the bird has ingeniously suggested an explanation of its divining power. “The smell of death is so grateful to them that they utter a loud croak of satisfaction instantly on perceiving it. In passing over sheep, if a tainted smell is perceptible, they cry vehemently. From this propensity in the raven to announce his satisfaction in the smell of death has probably arisen the common notion that he is aware of its approach among the human race, and foretells it by his croakings. I have no doubt the idea is fosunded in truth, although I think the coming event is not communicated to the raven by any immediate or supernatural impulse, but that in passing over a human habitation from which a sickly or cadaverous smell may escape, it is perfectly natural for him to announce his percepltion of it by his cries” (Zoologist, p. 217). The shepherd has a better reason for calling the raven a bird of ill omen. A more vigilant or more cruel enemy to the flock can hardly exist, and it frequently makes its ferocious assaults on the yet living victim. See Wood, Bible Animals, p. 439 sq.; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 198 sq.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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