קפוד. Isa. xiv, 23; xxxiv, 11; and Zephaniah ii, 14.
Interpreters have rendered this word variously: an _owl_, an _osprey_, a
_tortoise_, a _porcupine_, and even an _otter_. “How unhappy,” says Mr.
Harmer, “that a word which occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible
should be translated by three different words, and that one of them
should be _otter_!” Isaiah, prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says
that “the Lord will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
water;” and Zephaniah, ii, 14, prophesying against Nineveh, says that
“the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their
voice shall sing in the windows.” The Arabic version reads
“_al-houbara_.” According to Dr. Shaw, the _houbara_ is “of the bigness
of a capon, but of a longer body. It feeds on little shrubs and insects,
like the _graab el Sahara_; frequenting, in like manner, the confines of
the desert.” Golius interprets it _the bustard_; and Dr. Russel says
that the Arabic name of the bustard is “houbry.”
Interpreters have rendered this word variously: an _owl_, an _osprey_, a
_tortoise_, a _porcupine_, and even an _otter_. “How unhappy,” says Mr.
Harmer, “that a word which occurs but three times in the Hebrew Bible
should be translated by three different words, and that one of them
should be _otter_!” Isaiah, prophesying the destruction of Babylon, says
that “the Lord will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
water;” and Zephaniah, ii, 14, prophesying against Nineveh, says that
“the cormorant and bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their
voice shall sing in the windows.” The Arabic version reads
“_al-houbara_.” According to Dr. Shaw, the _houbara_ is “of the bigness
of a capon, but of a longer body. It feeds on little shrubs and insects,
like the _graab el Sahara_; frequenting, in like manner, the confines of
the desert.” Golius interprets it _the bustard_; and Dr. Russel says
that the Arabic name of the bustard is “houbry.”