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STORKS IN THE BIBLE

Posted: 04.05.20 in Articles category

Storks are birds of the Bible. They feature in 6 Old Testament books, each with single references to storks. The bird is listed in the 2 registers of 'unclean' food that the Israelites were instructed not to eat, found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Yet it also appears in Job, a psalm and 2 of the prophets as you can read below:

Job 39 verse 13

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork.

Psalm 104 verses 16, 17

The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers....

Jeremiah 8 verse 7

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.

Zechariah 5 verse 9

Then I looked up - and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted the basket between heaven and earth.

Let's consider these 4 references as pairs. Both the psalm and the Jeremiah reference mention behavioural aspects of the stork. Overall, the psalm reads as a hymn that praises God for creation including the natural wonders of the earth. The lands north of Israel are extolled for their trees, animals and birds that include the tree-nesting storks. Jeremiah by contrast was lamenting the behaviour of the Israelites in failing to repent - not knowing what they should do unlike the 4 specified kinds of birds that act when they should in migrating at the right times.

The Job reference is part of God's reply, testifying to his sovereignty and loving care of animate creation. Here it relates to the ostrich, but see in this passage how the stork is contrasted as a bird with long feathers and wings enabling it to fly strongly. That aerial strength is implied in the strange reference from Zechariah. The prophet had a series of night visions including a 7th of a woman in a basket that an angel told him symbolised people's wickedness. In the vision two other women with the wings of storks lifted the basket up high and carried it off to 'Babylonia'. Storks are strong fliers, but nevertheless I find it a curious bird selection. Most biblical references to birds with strong flight relate to eagles and the choice of the stork in Zechariah's vision is unexplained.

 
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