ten calves fattened in the stall, ¹  twenty calves from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, not to mention rams, gazelles, deer, and well-fed birds.

“But now, ask the animals and they ²  will teach you, or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.

For ¹  it has been hidden from the eyes of every living creature, and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.

who teaches us ¹  more than ²  the wild animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; ¹  the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.

I looked and saw that there were no more people, ¹  and that all the birds in the sky had flown away.

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹ 

On its ruins all the birds of the sky will live, and all the wild animals ¹  will walk ²  on its branches.

Therefore the land will mourn, and all its inhabitants will perish. ¹  The wild animals, ²  the birds of the sky, and even the fish in the sea will perish.

They will return in fear and trembling ¹  like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria, and I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.

The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. ¹  But other birds of prey are all around them. ²  Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts. Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. ³ 

“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note ¹  that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives ²  like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds.

God blessed ¹  them and said ²  to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! ³  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” ⁴ 

So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam ¹  no companion who corresponded to him was found. ² 

Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. ¹ 

and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature of the earth. ¹ 

So Abram ¹  took all these for him and then cut them in two ²  and placed each half opposite the other, ³  but he did not cut the birds in half.

then the priest will command that two live clean birds, a piece of cedar wood, a scrap of crimson fabric, ¹  and some twigs of hyssop ²  be taken up ³  for the one being cleansed. ⁴ 

He produced manuals on botany, describing every kind of plant, ¹  from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on walls. He also produced manuals on biology, describing ²  animals, birds, insects, and fish.

Dogs will eat the members of your family ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!