Vulture

The umbrella collects four scriptural notices grouped under the name vulture — two from the dietary lists in the Pentateuch and one each from Job and Isaiah. UPDV typically translates the underlying Hebrew bird-names with kite or falcon rather than the older English vulture, but the same group of unclean carrion birds is in view across all four passages.

In the dietary lists

The Levitical and Deuteronomic catalogues of unclean birds list the same group of carnivores side by side. Leviticus places the bird among the kites and falcons: "and the kite, and the falcon after its kind," (Le 11:14). Deuteronomy gives a slightly fuller list with the same lineup: "and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind," (De 14:13). The contexts in both books are identical — birds of prey forbidden as food because they feed on carrion.

In Job's hymn to wisdom

Job's poem on the unfindability of wisdom uses the bird's vision to set the limit of natural sight. The "path" wisdom takes is hidden even from the keenest-eyed predators: "That path no bird of prey knows, Neither has the falcon's eye seen it:" (Job 28:7). The falcon's eye is named because it is the proverbial standard of long sight; if even that misses the path, then natural perception is incompetent for the search.

In Isaiah's oracle against Edom

Isaiah's oracle against Edom collapses the land into a wilderness colonized by carrion birds and serpents: "There will the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yes, there will the kites be gathered, every one with her mate." (Is 34:15). The kites pair off and gather over the ruined land — the sign that the territory has been given over to scavengers.