StrongerBible

tor

תֹּר

HebrewH8449“turtledove, dove, ...”

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 15:9Lev 1:14Lev 5:7Lev 5:11Lev 12:6Lev 12:8Lev 14:22Lev 14:30Lev 15:14Lev 15:29Num 6:10Psa 74:19Sng 2:12Jer 8:7
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Word studyResearch-gradeTOHRnoun

What tor means

the turtledove: a small migratory dove, named in Hebrew for its soft rolling coo

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Hebrew named this bird by its sound. The word imitates the soft, rolling coo of the turtledove, in the same way that English "turtledove", Latin "turtur" and German "Turteltaube" all echo the same call. It is a name built out of listening, and it has nothing to do with the identically spelled Hebrew words for scouting out a land (תּוּר) or for a turn in a sequence (תּוֹר).

The bird is a spring visitor. It winters in Africa and returns to the hills of Israel on so reliable a schedule that its voice worked as a calendar. Two of the best known uses turn on exactly that punctuality: the love poem hears the dove and knows the winter is over (Song of Songs 2:12), and the prophet holds the bird up as a creature that keeps its appointed time while God's own people do not (Jeremiah 8:7).

Every other appearance is a sacrifice. Most come from the law, where the bird is paired with the pigeon (יוֹנָה) in a set phrase, "two turtledoves or two young pigeons", and it is always what a worshipper brings who cannot afford anything larger:

  • a burnt offering for someone who cannot bring a bull or a sheep (Leviticus 1:14)
  • two birds in place of a lamb when a person owes a sin offering (Leviticus 5:7)
  • the cheaper option for a mother after childbirth (Leviticus 12:8)
  • the closing rites for a healed skin disease and for a bodily discharge (Leviticus 14:22, Leviticus 15:14)
  • a fresh start for a Nazirite whose vow was broken by a death nearby (Numbers 6:10)

The oldest appearance is different in kind: a turtledove is among the animals Abram sets out when God makes his covenant with him (Genesis 15:9). And that mix of the cheap and the sacred is what makes the bird useful as a picture. When one psalm begs God not to hand his suffering people over to wild animals, it calls them his turtledove (Psalm 74:19): small, defenseless, and worth almost nothing to anyone but the one who owns it.

Nuances

1aan actual turtledove: the living bird, whether calling in the open country or brought to be offered
Gen 15:9Lev 1:14Lev 5:7Lev 5:11Lev 12:6Lev 12:8Lev 14:22Lev 14:30Lev 15:14Lev 15:29Num 6:10Sng 2:12
1ba picture of God's helpless people, called his dove because they are small and cannot defend themselves
Psa 74:19

What scholars say about tor

BDB files the bird as a separate homonym (II. תֹּר, תּוֹר) and labels it onomatopoetic, deliberately declining to derive it from the verb תּוּר; Klein's etymological dictionary agrees, comparing Latin turtur, which is likewise imitative. HALOT and DCH treat the sense as uniform across all fourteen occurrences. Zoological studies of the biblical fauna (Aharoni, Torat ha-Ḥai; Feliks, The Animal World of the Bible) identify the bird as Streptopelia turtur, an obligate migrant that winters in sub-Saharan Africa and arrives in the Levant in spring. That migratory biology is what carries the rhetoric of Jeremiah 8:7, where the bird's punctual arrival indicts Israel's failure to return to the LORD, and of Song 2:12, where its voice marks the turn of the season. Commentators on Leviticus (Milgrom, Levine) read the paired birds within the sliding scale of sacrificial alternatives for the poor that runs through Leviticus 1, 5, 12, 14, 15 and Numbers 6. The Septuagint renders the word consistently by τρυγών, itself derived from τρύζω, to coo, so the Greek name is imitative in the same fashion; Luke 2:24 preserves the same offering of the poor. Rabbinic law makes the plural תּוֹרִים a technical term with an age requirement opposite to that of the pigeon: the turtledove is fit for the altar only as an adult bird, the young pigeon only while young (Mishnah Ḥullin 1:5; tractate Kinnim). Psalm 74:19 is the single figurative occurrence, where the parallel colon ("the life of your afflicted ones") secures the reference of the bird to the covenant community rather than to a literal dove. Note that Song 1:10 and 11 and Esther 2:12 and 15, often listed under the same spelling, belong to the homographs for an ornament and for a turn in a sequence, not to this bird.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. II. תֹּר, תּוֹרlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. תּוֹרlexicon
  • DCH, vol. 8, s.v. תּוֹרlexicon
  • Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English (Carta, 1987), s.v. תּוֹרlexicon
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible 3; Doubleday, 1991)commentary
  • Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary; Jewish Publication Society, 1989)commentary
  • William McKane, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, vol. 1 (ICC; T&T Clark, 1986)commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible 7C; Doubleday, 1977)commentary
  • Jehuda Feliks, The Animal World of the Bible (Sinai, 1962)monograph
  • Mishnah Ḥullin 1:5; Mishnah Kinnimprimary-source

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of תֹּר

c p absolute

תֹּרִים

Lev 1:14, Lev 5:7, Lev 5:11, Lev 12:8, Lev 14:22, Lev 14:30, Lev 15:14, Lev 15:29

c s absolute

תֹר, הַתּוֹר

Gen 15:9, Lev 12:6, Jer 8:7, Sng 2:12

c s construct

תּוֹרֶךָ

Psa 74:19