Crane (Hastings' Dictionary)

The word oib jiJf, or O'p ^, tr. in AV crane, should be tr. swallow (so RV). The first of these words occurs in Hezekiah's prayer (Is 38"). Here (isrsg is iijj did?) sus is a swallow, and 'agvr possibly an adjective which means twittering. The passage would then be tr. ' as a twittering swallow I chatter.' In the second passage (Jer 8') occurs the second form ("i"Jj;i o'p?), and here ^is is again a swallow, and 'agiir the txvit- tererC.) If the passage be tr.

'as a swallow and a tmtterer,' the latter probably refers to another species of swallow, or one of the twittering birds 01 passage, of which there are many in the Holy Land. In the passage in Jer. the allusion is to the migratory habits of the bird, and its note ; in Isaiah to its note alone. Some of the swallows, as the swift or martin, are known to the Arabs by the name ^m or sis, and utter a piercing shriek as they fly, but the allusion here is to the twittering of the birds in nesting time.

By no stretch of imagination could the whoop or trumpeting of the crane be called twittering. Some have supposed that the yanshiiph (Lv 11", Dt 14'«), tr. in AV and RV great owl, and yansMph (Is 34"), tr. in both owl, are the crane. But, in the absence of evidence in its favour, we must drop the crane from the fauna of the Bible. G. E. Post.

CRATES (K/xiT77r), a deputy left in charge of the citadel at Jerusalem (Acra) when the regular governor, Sostratus, was summoned to Antioeh by Antiochus Epiphanes, in consequence of a dispute with the high priest Menelaus (2 Mac 4^). Crates is termed the governor of the Cyprians (t4v {tI tCiv Kt/vpluy, RV ' who was over the Cyprians') : prob- ably he was sent to Cyprus shortly afterwards, when, in 1C8 B.C., Antiochus obtained possession of the island.

Some MSS read here 'ZuiTTparos di Kparriaas twv iirl r. Kiw. ; 80 Vulg. Sostratus prwlatus est Cypriis. H. A. White.