Hebrew word · H7201

רָאָה

vehara'ah

glede

A bird name found only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from the name, the parallel list and later tradition. The form matches the common verb 'to see', which suggests 'the seer', a bird known for spotting prey or carrion from a great height.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) bird of prey

1a) perhaps kite or hawk

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 14:13

Range of meaning

A bird name found only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from the name, the parallel list and later tradition. The form matches the common verb 'to see', which suggests 'the seer', a bird known for spotting prey or carrion from a great height. It is usually identified as a kite (genus Milvus), traditionally the red kite.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'glede', an old English word for the kite, from the Old English for 'glider'. BSB and WEB have 'red kite'. Other modern versions have 'kite' or 'buzzard'. All of these are educated guesses at a species.

How it drifted

'Glede' has simply dropped out of use, so most readers of the KJV do not know it is a kite. The meaning has not changed; the word has become opaque.

Used elsewhere in the period

The parallel in Leviticus 11:14 reads da'ah, from the verb 'to swoop/fly swiftly' (compare Deut 28:49, 'as the eagle swoops'; Ps 18:10, 'he soared on the wings of the wind'). The Babylonian Talmud (Hullin 63b) treats ra'ah, da'ah, ayyah and dayyah as names for the same bird or bird group, and explains ra'ah by its unusually keen sight. HALOT and BDB both mention the possibility that ra'ah and da'ah are a resh/dalet copying confusion.

Similar words

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 14:13 וְהָרָאָה֙ and the red kite

    the red kite, the falcon, any kind of kite,

    Here: 'And the ra'ah.' The name looks like it comes from the verb 'to see' (ra'ah). That fits a high-soaring, sharp-eyed raptor, and the Talmud explains the name this way. It is usually identified as a kite, often the red kite. It continues the list of birds Israel may not eat, which began in v. 12.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.