''Qippoz'', also transliterated ''qippôz, qîppôz'', and ''qippōz'', (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: קִפוֹז) is a term used in the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an Fixed expression, expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written re ...

'', appearing only once in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, and its meaning is uncertain. It appears in Isaiah 34:15, in the context of the judgment of

Edom Edom (; Edomite language, Edomite: ; , lit.: "red"; Akkadian language, Akkadian: , ; Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomi ...

, where animals associated with desolation are said to inhabit the ruined Edomite cities. Many English Bible translations, including the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

, translate it as an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, but other translations have been offered. More modern interpretations translate it as an arrow snake, including the

New King James Version The New King James Version (NKJV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English, working as a revision of the King James Version. Published by Thomas Nelson, the complete NKJV was released in 1982. With regard to its textual basis, the ...

and

New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh The New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh (NJPS), first published in complete form in 1985, is a modern Jewish 'written from scratch' translation of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible into Jewish English Bible translations, English ...

. Due to the uncertainty of the proper translation, the ''qippoz'' features in debates about whether

demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media including fiction, comics, film, t ...

are referenced in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

Context

The word ''qippoz'' is a Hebrew-language ''

hapax legomenon In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an Fixed expression, expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written re ...

'' in the

, appearing only once through the entire text, in Isaiah 34:15. This section of the

is concerned with the judgment of

, a nation that was supposed to be brotherly with the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

, but instead became their enemy. Historically, and likely contemporary with the writing of Isaiah, the Edomites may have been involved in attacks on

Judea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the pres ...

in an alliance with the

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

ns in the 6th century BCE. Theologically, it is invoked as a symbolic antagonism harkening back to the progenitors of Judea and Edom:

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

and

Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

. The Book of Isaiah singles out Edom as having earned the wrath of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, which will result in its complete destruction. Verses 11 through 17 provide a list of creatures that will inhabit the ruined fortresses and destroyed wasteland of Edom. The identities of many of these creatures is contested, and various translations exist. The listed creatures are believed to be both wild animals and

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

s. Many of the same creatures are also listed in the Bible's description of the destruction of Babylon, and this passage may have been modelled off of it. The ''qippoz'' is listed among these creatures. There is debate among scholars and translators about the identity of many of these creatures. The name

Lilith Lilith (; ), also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis, is a feminine figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and a primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden ...

, which appears before ''qippoz'', is regarded by some as a seductive demoness that features in other parts of

Jewish mythology Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on Abrahamic culture in general. Christian mythology directly ...

, including the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

, and has been translated variously as " night-hag" and "

lamia Lamia (; ), in ancient Greek mythology, was a child-eating monster and, in later tradition, was regarded as a type of night-haunting spirit or "daimon". In the earliest myths, Lamia was a beautiful queen of ancient Libya who had an affair with ...

." The King James Version translates Lilith as a type of owl. Judit M. Stein, arguing that

are not referenced at all in the Old Testament, regards Lilith and the rest of the creatures — including ''qippoz'' — exclusively reference real animals.

Translations

The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

lists

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s for all of the creatures in the verses. ''Qippoz'' was read as related to ''qippod'' and translated as

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...

. The

Latin Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, of his own initia ...

also uses the hedgehog translation. This reading has not been accepted as accurate by scholars, and other translations have been offered, including the

short-eared owl The short-eared owl (''Asio flammeus'') is a widespread grassland species in the family Strigidae. Owls belonging to genus ''Asio'' are known as the eared owls, as they have tufts of feathers resembling mammalian ears. These "ear" tufts may or ...

and

bustard Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large, terrestrial birds living mainly in dry grassland areas and in steppe regions. They range in length from . They make up the family Otididae (, formerly known as Otidae). Bustards are ...

. ''Qippod'' has been translated differently in ''

Strong's Concordance ''The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'', generally known as Strong's Concordance, is a Bible concordance, an index of every word in the King James Version (KJV), constructed under the direction of American theologian James Strong. Strong fi ...

'' as ''

bittern Bitterns are birds belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae of the heron family Ardeidae. Bitterns tend to be shorter-necked and more secretive than other members of the family. They were called ''hæferblæte'' and various iterations of ''rared ...

''. The

renders it as "great owl," and the passage as "There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow. ''Qippoz'' is not the only word that the KJV translates as owl. Words such as ''yanshuf'', '' lilit'', ''kos'', and ''bat-ya'anah'' are also translated as various kinds of owl. Reverend William Houghton, a naturalist and clergyman, regarded this interpretation as "probably correctly" rendered. The

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978, with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies ...

, the Restoration Study Bible, and the

Complete Jewish Bible Messianic Bible translations are translations, or editions of translations, in English of the Christian Bible, some of which are widely used in the Messianic Judaism and Hebrew Roots communities. They are not the same as Jewish English Bible tra ...

all follow the owl translation.

Samuel Bochart Samuel Bochart (30 May 1599 – 16 May 1667) was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet. His two-volume (Caen 1646) exerted a profound influence on seventeenth-century Biblical e ...

translated ''qippoz'' as "arrow-snake," an interpretation adopted by nineteenth century British theologians

John Kitto John Kitto (4 December 1804 – 25 November 1854) was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent. Biography Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of hi ...

and

William Lindsay Alexander William Lindsay Alexander FRSE LLD (24 August 180820 December 1884) was a Scottish church leader. Life He was born in Leith, the son of William Alexander, a wine merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth Lindsay. The only address given for his father ...

. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Old Testament lexicon also suggested "arrow-snake" as the correct interpretation. Some modern English Bible translations have followed this lead, including the

New Jerusalem Bible ''The New Jerusalem Bible'' (NJB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1985 by Darton, Longman and Todd and Les Editions du Cerf, edited by Benedictine biblical scholar Henry Wansbrough. This books was approved for use in stu ...

, which reads "snake" and the

New American Standard Bible The New American Standard Bible (NASB, also simply NAS for "New American Standard") is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published by the Lockman Foundation, the complete NASB was released in 1971. New revisions were publis ...

, which reads "tree snake." The

uses the arrow-snake translation. The

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English, working as a revision of the King James Version. Published by Thomas Nelson, the complete NKJV was released in 1982. With regard to its textual basis, the ...

also reads "arrow snake." ''Strong's Concordance'' states the word comes from an unused Hebrew

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

meaning ''to spring forward'', as an arrow snake darting for its prey, and also lists "great owl" as a translation. G. R. Driver rejected both the owl and snake translations, suggesting instead " sand-partridge," which lives in dry and desolate regions, following his interpretation of the Hebrew root relating to the word "hop," an activity undertaken by partridges. The

New English Bible The New English Bible (NEB) is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1961 and the Old Testament (with the Apocrypha) was published on 16 March 1970. In 1989, it was significantly revised and republished as the ...

uses the sand-partridge translation. Judit M. Blair suggests that a generic "desert bird" is more apt, given the lack of any more specific evidence.

References

{{Reflist Animals in the Bible Book of Isaiah Demons in Judaism Jewish legendary creatures Owls in culture Serpents in the Bible

Context

Translations

See also

References