sparrow

While the Greek word strouthion is certainly the name for the sparrow, the Hebrew tsippor is actually an inclusive word that refers to sparrow-sized birds in general. These small birds, especially sparrows, were caught in nets and traps and were an important part of the diet of poor people.

There are three types of sparrow that are common in Israel, the House Sparrow Passer domesticus, the Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis, and the Dead Sea Sparrow Passer moabiticus. All three are small speckled brown birds. Additional small birds that abound around towns and settlements are members of the bunting, finch, and tit families. Sparrows in particular are usually found in fairly large numbers roosting and nesting together. All are seed eaters and live mainly on grass seeds and grain.

Sparrows were considered clean birds and were associated with the poor.

Sparrows or sparrow-like small birds are found all over the world. Finding a local word is not usually difficult. The reference to “a lonely bird on the housetop” in Psalms 102:7 takes on additional meaning if the sparrow was intended, since it is a bird that is seldom seen alone. It would then indicate the psalmist’s sense of loneliness at being separated from those with whom he belongs.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Deuteronomy 22:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 22:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “If you find the nest of a bird in a tree or down on the ground and the bird covering her children/young or sitting on her eggs, do not take the bird together with its young.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “If [you] see a bird’s nest in a tree alongside the road or on the ground and if there is a mother bird in it along with young birds or sitting on eggs, do not take the mother bird with young birds.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘If you (plur.) see a nest of a bird beside the road, in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is-sitting-down on her chicks or on her eggs, do- not -take the mother with the chicks or eggs.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting in the nest on its eggs or with the baby birds, do not take the mother bird and kill it.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 22:6 - 22:7

The underlying purpose in these instructions is not just humanitarian concern for other forms of life, but the preservation of a food source. A mother bird will lay more eggs and produce more young.

That it may go well with you, and that you may live long: this probably means more than a long life as such. It means the people will live for many generations in the Promised Land (see discussion at 6.2). Good News Translation gives a helpful model for this verse; so also does Contemporary English Version: “… Let her go free, and the LORD will bless you with a long and successful life.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .