Flying describes movement through the air, and Scripture uses that visible movement to express several different realities. Genesis 1:20 describes birds flying above the earth within God's creation of living creatures.
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Full entry for עוּף (H5774) · Open the biblical lexicon
Flying describes movement through the air, and Scripture uses that visible movement to express several different realities. Genesis 1:20 describes birds flying above the earth within God's creation of living creatures.
The BSB source-word alignment has 26 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a flying (2), and flew (2), fly (2), and a flying (1), and flies (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (7), Psalms (4), Job (3), Proverbs (3).
Flying describes movement through the air, and Scripture uses that visible movement to express several different realities. Genesis 1:20 describes birds flying above the earth within God's creation of living creatures. Proverbs 23:5 gives wealth wings and pictures it flying away like an eagle, exposing the instability of riches. Psalm 55:6 voices a distressed worshiper's wish for a dove's wings so that he could fly away and find rest.
These are creation description, wisdom imagery and lament, not three versions of one promise about freedom. The verb contributes movement, departure or rapid disappearance as its setting determines. It does not make a person's desire to escape suffering sinful, nor does a poetic departure establish a doctrine of what happens to the soul after death. Attend to what flies, why it flies and whether the speaker describes fact, comparison or longing.
Birds' actual flight becomes imagery for wealth's disappearance and a sufferer's desired escape. Genre and subject determine what the motion contributes, keeping creation, proverb and lament distinct.
And God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
Birds flying in the open expanse are part of the narrated creation of living creatures; the command concerns their life and habitat rather than human spiritual escape.
When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
Wealth is pictured growing wings and departing like an eagle, following a warning not to exhaust oneself in the pursuit of riches.
I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.
The wish for dove's wings expresses a heart overwhelmed by terror; the psalm gives voice to longing for rest before its later appeal to God.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItSeparate English wording is recorded for 26 of 26 aligned rows. Rows without separate wording remain in the aligned-row total.
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. to fly ; also (by implication of dimness) to faint (from the darkness of swooning)
to fly; also (by implication of dimness) to faint (from the darkness of swooning) BDB: fly Usage: brandish, be (wax) faint, flee away, fly (away), × set, shine forth, weary.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
עוּף is built from this root:
Ask what is airborne in each passage: a created bird, disappearing wealth or the sufferer's imagined escape. This comparison helps readers hear wisdom and lament without turning their images into promised outcomes.
Psalm 55 lets the reader hear a threatened person's wish before offering an instruction. The worshiper imagines wings and a distant resting place because fear and horror have become overwhelming. Teaching the flying verb as though it were simply a command to rise above trouble would miss that honest lament. Proverbs 23 uses flight differently: the imagined wings belong to wealth, warning the person who wears himself out acquiring it.
Genesis describes birds in their created habitat without either of those figurative burdens. Taken together, the passages invite attention to ordinary movement as an image that Scripture can employ with precision. The teacher should neither shame the longing for safety nor promise an effortless escape, but help the reader follow the particular passage's account of need and dependence.
Flight language corrects claims that every departure image promises spiritual liberation or that a lamenter's longing to get away proves deficient faith.
Keep the subject and genre attached to the flying verb, allowing a bird's movement, a proverb's warning and a prayer's longing to do different work.
The verb can operate literally or in a comparison, and its subject resolves much of the interpretive question. An eagle-like disappearance of wealth must not be treated as a new physical property of money.
Genesis places birds within God's creation and the Psalms and Proverbs draw different images from their flight. Matthew 6:26 later directs attention to birds in a lesson about the Father's care. This is a comparison of created imagery, not a direct prediction or a lexical argument for escape from embodied life.