What does עוֹף (ʿwōp) mean in the Bible?
H5775 is a Hebrew collective noun for birds, flying creatures, or winged life. Genesis 1:21 places winged creatures within God's ordered creation and declares them good according to their kinds.
Hebrew · H5775
עוֹף
A bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectively
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עוֹףH5775
Pronunciationʿwōp
What does עוֹף (ʿwōp) mean in the Bible?
H5775 is a Hebrew collective noun for birds, flying creatures, or winged life. Genesis 1:21 places winged creatures within God's ordered creation and declares them good according to their kinds.
Reader summary
Full entry for עוֹף (H5775) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H5775?
The BSB source-word alignment has 71 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include bird (12), the birds (12), birds (9), and the birds (5), to the birds (5).
Where does עוֹף (ʿwōp) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:20. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (22), Leviticus (10), Jeremiah (9), Ezekiel (6).
What This Word Actually Means
H5775 is a Hebrew collective noun for birds, flying creatures, or winged life. Genesis 1:21 places winged creatures within God's ordered creation and declares them good according to their kinds. Psalm 50:11 says that God knows every bird of the mountains, locating their lives within His knowledge and ownership rather than merely within human usefulness. Hosea 2:18 includes the birds of the air in a covenant picture of peace, while other texts place birds in human stewardship, wisdom gained from creation, provision, sacrificial practice, or the severe imagery of judgment.
The noun is broad and does not make every bird reference symbolic. Nor does humanity's rule over birds permit careless destruction; Genesis presents delegated responsibility beneath the Creator's blessing and command. H5775 opens teaching on created goodness, biodiversity, providence, accountable stewardship, and creation's participation in biblical images of peace and judgment.
It corrects interpretations that treat nonhuman life as spiritually irrelevant or that assign a hidden omen to every appearance of a bird.
How the Bible Uses It
H5775 gathers birds and other winged creatures as a collective category within creation. Scripture presents them as good creatures known by God, subjects of human stewardship, teachers within wisdom, participants in covenant peace imagery, and at times agents or signs within judgment scenes.
- Gen.1.21
So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters teemed according to their kinds, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
God creates every winged bird according to its kind and declares the ordered abundance of living creatures good.
- Ps.50.11
I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine.
God says He knows every bird in the mountains, grounding His claim in Creator knowledge and ownership rather than human possession.
- Hos.2.18
On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and battle in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
The promised covenant of peace includes beasts, birds, and ground creatures alongside the removal of weapons and warfare.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itbird12×Genesis 1:21, Genesis 1:30, Genesis 2:19, Genesis 6:20
the birds12×Genesis 7:8, Genesis 9:10, Deuteronomy 28:26, 2 Samuel 21:10
birds9×Genesis 7:21, Genesis 8:17, Leviticus 1:14, Leviticus 11:13
and the birds5×Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Jeremiah 15:3, Ezekiel 29:5
to the birds5×Genesis 2:20, 1 Samuel 17:44, 1 Samuel 17:46, Psalms 79:2
flying4×Leviticus 11:20, Leviticus 11:21, Leviticus 11:23, Deuteronomy 14:19
by the birds3×1 Kings 14:11, 1 Kings 16:4, 1 Kings 21:24
for the birds3×Jeremiah 7:33, Jeremiah 16:4, Jeremiah 34:20
and birds2×Genesis 7:23, Jeremiah 12:4
and let birds2×Genesis 1:20, Genesis 1:22
a bird1×Ecclesiastes 10:20
and bird1×Genesis 6:7
ask the birds1×Job 12:7
Both the birds1×Jeremiah 9:10
but the birds1×Genesis 40:17
from the birds1×Job 28:21
like a bird1×Hosea 9:11
like birds1×Hosea 7:12
Like fluttering birds1×Isaiah 16:2
of [every kind of] bird1×Genesis 7:3
of any bird1×Leviticus 7:26
or bird1×Leviticus 20:25
than the birds1×Job 35:11
Then the birds1×Genesis 40:19
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 1:20וְעוֹף֙toand let birdsConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 1:21ע֤וֹףtobirdNoun - masculine singularGenesis 1:22וְהָע֖וֹףtoand let birdsConjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine singularGenesis 1:26וּבְע֣וֹףtoand the birdsConjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular constructGenesis 1:28וּבְע֣וֹףtoand the birdsConjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular constructGenesis 1:30ע֨וֹףtobirdNoun - masculine singular constructGenesis 2:19ע֣וֹףtobirdNoun - masculine singular constructGenesis 2:20וּלְע֣וֹףtoto the birdsConjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular constructGenesis 6:7ע֣וֹףtoand birdNoun - masculine singular constructGenesis 6:20מֵהָע֣וֹףtobirdPreposition-m, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 1:20
Aligned rows71
Books represented14
Genesis22Leviticus10Deuteronomy31 Samuel22 Samuel11 Kings4Job3Psalms4Ecclesiastes1Isaiah1Jeremiah9Ezekiel6Hosea4Zephaniah1
Source forms
ע֣וֹף11x‘ō·wp̄Genesis 2:19, Genesis 6:7, Genesis 7:23, Genesis 9:2
הָע֔וֹף8xhā·‘ō·wp̄Genesis 7:8, Genesis 8:19, Leviticus 11:13, Leviticus 11:20
לְע֥וֹף6xlə·‘ō·wp̄1 Samuel 17:44, 1 Samuel 17:46, Jeremiah 7:33, Jeremiah 16:4
ע֥וֹף5x‘ō·wp̄Deuteronomy 14:20, Deuteronomy 28:26, 1 Kings 16:4, 1 Kings 21:24
וּבְע֣וֹף3xū·ḇə·‘ō·wp̄Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Hosea 4:3
בָּע֧וֹף2xbā·‘ō·wp̄Genesis 8:17, Genesis 9:10
הָע֣וֹף2xhā·‘ō·wp̄Genesis 7:14, Genesis 8:20
הָע֛וֹף2xhā·‘ō·wp̄Genesis 40:19, Leviticus 1:14
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular construct21xGenesis 1:30, Genesis 2:19, Genesis 6:7, Genesis 7:23
Article | Noun - masculine singular14xGenesis 7:8, Genesis 7:14, Genesis 8:19, Genesis 8:20
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct7x1 Samuel 17:44, 1 Samuel 17:46, Psalms 79:2, Jeremiah 7:33
Noun - masculine singular4xGenesis 1:21, Leviticus 17:13, Deuteronomy 14:20, Jeremiah 5:27
Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine singular3xGenesis 1:22, Genesis 40:17, Leviticus 11:46
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct3xGenesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Hosea 4:3
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular3xGenesis 7:21, Genesis 8:17, Genesis 9:10
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular2xGenesis 1:20, Jeremiah 12:4
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Do not use dominion language to excuse needless cruelty, habitat destruction, or indifference to the consequences of human consumption.
- Do not present an ordinary bird encounter as a guaranteed divine sign, warning, or private message to another person.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that every use of H5775 refers to one biological species; it commonly names birds or winged creatures collectively.
- Do not claim that Scripture's use of birds in judgment makes birds themselves evil or spiritually unclean in every context.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Birds defined by their covering wings—the physical capacity for flight, not taxonomy alone.
Source Gloss
a bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectively
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Birds defined by their covering wings—the physical capacity for flight, not taxonomy alone.
a bird (as covered with feathers, or rather as covering with wings), often collectively BDB: flying creatures Usage: bird, that flieth, flying, fowl.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Bird species acceptable as sacrificial offering to the Lord
Flying creatures classified as unclean for dietary purposes
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 71 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
עוֹף is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
H5775 invites readers to notice that the biblical world is filled with winged life known and governed by God. Genesis does not introduce birds as scenery for humanity but as creatures made according to their kinds and blessed within a good creation. Human rule is real, yet it is exercised by creatures who remain under the Creator's authority. The Psalms make God's knowledge and ownership of birds part of worship, while wisdom can send a learner to animals and birds to recognize truths about divine agency and created order.
Prophets sometimes use gathered birds as signs of devastating judgment, and narratives can show birds threatening the unburied dead. Those severe settings should not be converted into a universal symbolic dictionary. Hosea's covenant image moves in another direction, including birds in a land made safe when weapons and war are removed. Together these uses encourage wonder, responsible care, and sober attention to genre.
H5775 does not answer every ecological policy question, yet it rules out contemptuous dominion detached from God's goodness. Birds belong first to their Maker, and human authority over their habitats and lives must remain answerable to Him.
Anchor passage
Gen.1.21
Doctrinal connections
- H5775: winged creatures arise from God's creative command, display ordered diversity, and receive His declaration of goodness.
- H5775: the Creator knows and owns the birds, so their value is not exhausted by usefulness, market price, or human enjoyment.
- H5775: human dominion is delegated within God's world and therefore entails restraint, care, and accountability rather than absolute possession.
- H5775: wisdom can learn from nonhuman creatures without worshiping them or treating nature as an independent source of revelation detached from God.
- H5775: judgment scenes involving birds communicate covenant severity, but their imagery must be read within the specific narrative or prophetic setting.
- H5775: prophetic peace can embrace land, animals, and human society, showing that God's restorative purposes are not indifferent to creation.
H5775 is commonly collective, so a singular Hebrew form may refer broadly to birds or flying creatures as a class. Context may emphasize winged movement, created kind, permitted or forbidden food, sacrificial use, or the role of birds within a scene.
From Old to New Testament
Jesus' teaching about the Father's care for birds and the New Testament's use of creation imagery continue the canonical witness that nonhuman life remains under God's notice. These connections do not erase the covenant and literary settings of H5775 in the Old Testament.