Leviticus 11:15 Commentary - Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(15) And every raven.—The raven or the black bird (Son. 5:11), the bird of the night, as its name denotes in Heb., like the eagle, occurs frequently in the Bible. It preys upon putrid corpses (Pro. 30:17), and is especially eager to pick out the eyes of the dead, and sometimes even attacks the eyes of the living. So great is its gluttony that it fills the air with its wild shrieks when searching for food (Psa. 147:9; Job. 38:41). Its rapacity makes the raven expel its own offspring from their nest and from the surrounding places as soon as they are able to fly, and before they are quite able to procure their own food. Indeed, the ancients believed that it forsook its young immediately after they were hatched. It was in consequence of their excessive greed and known aversion to part with anything, even for their own offspring, that the ravens were chosen to carry food to the prophet (1Ki. 17:4; 1Ki. 17:6), thus to make the miracle all the more striking. The phrase, “every raven after his kind,” clearly shows that the whole genus of ravens is intended, with all the raven-like birds, such as the rook, the crow, the jackdaw, the jay, &c, which abound in Syria and Palestine.