Hebrew word · H7994

שָׁלָךְ

hashalakh

cormorant

Appears only here and in Deut 14:17. It almost certainly comes from the verb shalakh, "to throw, fling, cast down." So it is a bird named for how it hunts: one that "flings itself" down, probably into water after fish. Suggested birds include the cormorant, gannet, tern, pied kingfisher and osprey.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) bird of prey

1a) probably the cormorant

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 Leviticus 11:17

Range of meaning

Appears only here and in Deut 14:17. It almost certainly comes from the verb shalakh, "to throw, fling, cast down." So it is a bird named for how it hunts: one that "flings itself" down, probably into water after fish. Suggested birds include the cormorant, gannet, tern, pied kingfisher and osprey.

Against the English

Every major English version has "cormorant." That is a reasonable guess from the name but not a certain one.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has kataraktēs, "the one that dashes down," a Greek name for a plunging seabird. It shows that ancient translators also took the name to describe diving. The Vulgate has mergulus, "little diver." Ancient readers agreed the bird was a diver, even if they did not agree on the species.

Similar words

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 11:17 הַשָּׁלָ֖ךְ the cormorant

    the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,

    Here: Probably comes from the verb shalakh, "to throw, cast down." That suggests a bird that "throws itself" into the water after fish. Cormorant is the traditional guess. Gannets, terns, or other plunge-divers are also possible.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 14:17 הַשָּׁלָֽךְ׃ the cormorant

    the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,

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