What Does Leviticus 11:19 Mean in the King James?
And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew name חֲסִידָה (ḥăsîdāh, “stork”) is traditionally linked to חֶסֶד (ḥesed, “faithful love”), leaving an echo of tenderness inside this stark list of excluded creatures.
THE MEANING
The verse names four creatures at the edge of the food boundary: the stork, heron, lapwing, and bat. Its specificity makes the distinction concrete, giving each creature its own place in the list.
THE ROOT
חֲסִידָה
ḥăsîdāh
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love, loyal kindness
The name חֲסִידָה (ḥăsîdāh, “stork”) is traditionally associated with חֶסֶד (ḥesed, “faithful love”), though the etymology is debated. That possible echo places language of faithful care beside a food boundary without turning the bird into a moral symbol.
ALSO GROWS
ḥesed: Faithful love; loyal kindness
חֶסֶד
This is the word the stork’s name is traditionally associated with, bringing an echo of faithful care into the list.
ḥāsîd: Faithful or devoted person
חָסִיד
This related form carries the language of loyalty, showing how the same consonants can name both a quality and one who embodies it.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names kinds and boundaries precisely, while later words expose how far a boundary may be carried.
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.THE THREAD
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.The stork’s name is traditionally connected to חֶסֶד (ḥesed, “faithful love”), the word rendered “mercy” here. The etymology is suggestive rather than certain, but the shared consonants let the bird’s name and the enduring quality sound together.
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