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Bible Dictionaries
Bittern
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or קפוד . Isaiah 14:23; Isaiah 34:11; and Zephaniah 2:14 . Interpreters have rendered this word variously: an owl, an osprey, a tortoise, a porcupine, and even an otter. "How unhappy," says Mr. Harmer, "that a word which occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible should be translated by three different words, and that one of them should be otter!" Isaiah, prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says that "the Lord will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water;" and Zephaniah 2:14 , prophesying against Nineveh, says that "the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows." The Arabic version reads "alhoubara." According to Dr.
Shaw, the houbara is "of the bigness of a capon, but of a longer body. It feeds on little shrubs and insects, like the graab el Sahara; frequenting, in like manner, the confines of the desert;" Golius interprets it the bustard; and Dr. Russel says that the Arabic name of the bustard is "houbry."
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Bittern'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/b/bittern.html. 1831-2.
