The Stork

by Wayne Blank

Storks are large long-legged wading birds found in temperate parts of the world. They are generally classed into two types, white and black. In the Bible, the Hebrew word for stork, pronounced kas-ee-daw, is also the word for kindness, or in practical usage, kind mother, an obvious reference to storks being notable for their affection and care of their young. While most birds will generally abandon their in-the-nest or not-yet-flying offspring to save themselves, most storks will stay and take on all comers, everything from lions to wildfires, often dying with their children rather than taking flight and leaving them. It may have been the exceptional parental qualities of storks that produced the myth of "the stork" delivering human babies; it was first recorded in Germany centuries ago, although in view of the ancient Hebrew word for stork, it may have originated much earlier, elsewhere.

Storks

Stork The Lord commanded that storks were not to be eaten, they being classed among the "unclean" birds and animals. As a very general rule, vegetarian birds and animals were "clean" for food, while carnivorous birds and animals were "unclean" for food (see Clean and Unclean):

"And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat." (Leviticus 11:13-19 KJV)

Although storks are wading birds, they usually nest in trees:

"The trees of The Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house." (Psalm 104:16-17 KJV)

Animals do seem to know something that many humans don't, or won't, not just about instincts of nature, but the existence of God e.g. "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of The Lord hath wrought this?" Job 12:7-9 KJV (see also Be Kind To Animals):

"Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of The Lord." (Jeremiah 8:7 KJV)

Fact Finder: What are some of the other birds of the Scriptures?
See Birds Of The Bible

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