Leviticus 14:4
the priest shall order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
Note birds: or, sparrows
then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop.
then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
Related passages
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, grouped by the word they explain.
- two birds
- or, sparrows. The word {tzippor,} from the Arabic {zaphara,} to fly, is used in the Scriptures to denote birds of every species, particularly small birds. But it is often used in a more restricted sense, as the Hebrew writers assert, to signify the sparrow. Aquinas says the same; and Jerome renders it here the sparrow. So the Greek [strouthia,] in Matthew and Luke, which signifies a sparrow, is rendered by the Syriac translator {tzipparin}, the same as the Hebrew {tzipporim}. Nor is it peculiar to the Hebrews to give the same name to the sparrow and to fowls of the largest size; for Nicander calls the hen [strouthos katoikados,] the domestic sparrow, and both Plautus and Ausonius call the ostrich, {passer marinus,} "the marine sparrow." It is evident, however, that the word in this passage signifies birds in general; for if the sparrow was a clean bird, there was no necessity for commanding a clean one to be taken, since every one of the species was ceremonially clean; but if it was unclean, then it could not be called clean.
- Leviticus 1:14; Leviticus 5:7; Leviticus 12:8
- cedar
- Leviticus 14:6, 49–52; Numbers 19:6
- scarlet
- Hebrews 9:19
- hyssop
- Exodus 12:22; Numbers 19:18; Psalm 51:7