Glede

The ra'ah of Deuteronomy 14:13, listed among the unclean birds beside the kite and the vulture. Its Hebrew name is preserved as its own word in the Mosaic text, even though many scholars read it as another name for the kite rather than a distinct species in its own right.

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Deuteronomy 14:13, A Name Preserved in the Unclean-Bird List

Scripture references: Deuteronomy 14:13

The Glede in Scripture

Deuteronomy 14:13, "And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind." The glede appears exactly once in the King James Bible, in Moses's restatement of the dietary law to the second generation in the plains of Moab. The verse falls inside the larger catalogue of unclean birds that opens in verse 12 with the eagle and the ossifrage and continues through verse 18 with the stork, the heron, the lapwing, and the bat. The glede stands third in that procession, sandwiched between the kite and the vulture, three birds of prey named in a single breath as creatures Israel was not to eat.

The Glede in the Sanctum

The glede is the rarest of the unclean-bird names in the Torah, occurring nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, which is exactly why its identity cannot be settled with confidence rather than in spite of it. The Sanctum holds it as Canon-tier by text, the word ra'ah stands in Deuteronomy 14:13 as its own entry in the Mosaic dietary law, while noting honestly that many scholars treat it as a variant of the kite term (ayyah) rather than a wholly separate species.

Ask Dave About the Glede

Dave holds the full record, the glede's single appearance in Deuteronomy 14:13 among the unclean birds beside the kite and the vulture, the Hebrew ra'ah and its likely root in "to see," and the honest scholarly question of whether ra'ah names a distinct bird or is a variant reading of the word for kite.

Ask Dave About the Glede

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