Night hawk (Hastings' Dictionary)

Tahméag oceurs twice (Ly 118, Dt 1415) in the list of unclean birds. Our view of its meaning will be influenced by that which we take of the signification of the preceding word myy"rnz bath- hayyaddnah. AV translates this in all’ the eight passages where it occurs ‘owl,’ but in four (Job 30”, Is 13% 3418 43°) the margin has ‘ostrich.’ ἴῃ all of them RV gives ‘ostrich.’ The LXX generally renders it στρουθός, but sometimes σειρήνος.

As the latter is a fabulous bird, the weight of the LXX is with RV. Many have thought that tahmds refers to the ostrich, the root λάπιας signifying ‘to be violent or unjust,’ and that it corresponds to the Arab galim, which alsa signifies ‘the unjust bird’=the ostrich.

But if ‘ostrich’ is the elope rendering for bath-hayya'- dnah, it is not likely that another word would be used for the bird in the same context, especially if the expression ‘ after his kind,’ at the end of the assage, refers to all the four birds mentioned.

But even admitting, as is most probable, that this expression is limited to the genus immediately after which it occurs, still, if we agree with RV in the rendering ‘ostrich’ for bath-hayya'dndh, we must seek for another bird to correspond with tahmdas. Unfortunately, this is difficult to find. Γλαύξ, for which we have the authority of the LXX, and noctua that of the Vulg., signify some sort of owl. But two other words in this context are tr* respectively ‘little owl’ and ‘great owl.

’ ‘Night hawk’ would seem to be a mere guess. Perhaps it would be better with RVm to transliterate tahmas. G. E. Post. NIGHT MONSTER (nS Jilith, évoxévraupos, lamia, Is 344 AVm and RV ga ha monster,’ AV ‘screech owl,’ RVm ‘ Lilith’ [wh. see]).—The reference is to a nocturnal spectre, similar to the Atl of the Arabs. ΑἹ] nations have, in their egends, similar apparitions (cf. Wellh. Reste?, 148 ff.; W. R. Smith, RS 113f.) The Heb.

has two other words of similar import, api>y (see HORSE-LEECH) and o yy (see AZAZEL, SATYR). The mention of such fabulous monsters does not commit Scripture to an endorsement of the fact of their existence. See OWL, 5. G. E. Post.