dove Summary and Overview

In their wild state doves generally build their nests in the clefts of rocks, but when domesticated "dove-cots" are prepared for them (Cant. 2:14; Jer. 48:28; Isa. 60:8). The dove was placed on the standards of the Assyrians and Babylonians in honour, it is supposed, of Semiramis (Jer. 25:38; Vulg., "fierceness of the dove;" compare Jer. 46:16; 50:16). Doves and turtle-doves were the only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, as they were clean according to the Mosaic law (Ge. 15:9; Lev. 5:7; 12:6; Luke 2:24). The dove was the harbinger of peace to Noah (Gen. 8:8, 10). It is often mentioned as the emblem of purity (Ps. 68:13). It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32); also of tender and devoted affection (Cant. 1:15; 2:14). David in his distress wished that he had the wings of a dove, that he might fly away and be at rest (Ps. 55:6-8). There is a species of dove found at Damascus "whose feathers, all except the wings, are literally as yellow as gold" (68:13).

The first menton of this bird occurs in Gen. 8. The dove's rapidity of flight is alluded to in #Ps 55:6| the beauty of its plumage in #Ps 68:13| its dwelling int he rocks and valleys in #Jer 48:28| and Ezek 7:16 its mournful voice in #Isa 38:14; 59:11; Na 2:7| its harmlessness in #Mt 10:16| its simplicity in #Ho 7:11| and its amativeness in #So 1:15; 2:14| Doves are kept in a domesticated state in many parts of the East. In Persia pigeon-houses are erected at a distance from the dwellings, for the purpose of collecting the dung as manure. There is probably an allusion to such a custom in #Isa 60:8|

DOVE . Gen 8:9. A bird clean by the Mosaic law, and often mentioned by the sacred writers. In their wild state doves dwell principally in holes in the rocks. Song of Solomon 2:14; Jer 48:28. They are innocent in their dispositions, and make no resistance to their enemies. Matt 10:16. They are very much attached to their mates; and when one is absent or dies, the other, or survivor, laments its loneliness. Isa 38:14; Isa 59:11; Eze 7:16 Nah 2:7. There are various allusions to the mildness, peacefulness, and affection of doves. The Church is called a "turtledove" and a "dove," or compared to it. Ps 74:19; Song of Solomon 1:15; Num 2:14; Song of Solomon 4:1; Song of Solomon 5:2; Acts 6:9. Where "doves' eyes" are spoken of in these passages, allusion is made to the meekness of their expression. Lange's Commentary translates Song of Solomon 5:12 thus: "His eyes [are] like doves by brooks of water, bathing in milk, sitting on fulness." Thus understood, the passage compares the iris nestling in the white of the eye to a blue pigeon bathing in a brook of milk. It was in the manner of a dove that the Holy Spirit descended upon our Saviour at his baptism. Matt 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32. Hosea compares timid Ephraim to "a silly dove without heart," Hosea 7:11, and says that when the Jews shall be called to their own land they shall "tremble," or fly, "as a dove out of the land of Assyria." Hosea 11:11. David in his distress wished that he could fly from his troubles as the doves do to warmer climates on the approach of winter. Ps 55:6-8. The appearance of the dove is spoken of as an emblem of spring. Song of Solomon 2:12. The dove is mentioned in an interesting part of the early history of the world as being sent out by Noah from the ark to discover whether the dry land had appeared. Gen 8:6-12. The dove was used in sacrifices. It was, among other animals, prepared by Abram when God manifested his intention to bless him, as narrated in Gen 15:9. When a child was born the mother was required within a certain time to bring a lamb and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, for offering; but if she were too poor to afford a lamb, she might bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. Lev 12:6-8. Thus we may judge of the poverty of Mary, the mother of .Jesus, when upon his birth she brought to the temple at Jerusalem the two birds instead of a lamb. Luke 2:24. It was to supply applicants with animals for sacrifice that certain persons sat in the temple with doves to sell, whom our Lord forced to leave it because "the house of prayer" was not a fit place for buying and selling. Mark 11:15; John 2:14-16. David, Ps 68:13, "refers to a kind" of dove "found at Damascus, whose leathers, all except the wings, are literally as yellow as gold; they are very small and kept in cages. I have often had them in my house, but their note is so very sad that I could not endure it." -- Thomson. In all Eastern towns homes are provided for the pigeons; sometimes special towers are erected for them; sometimes the upper stories of the houses are fitted with openings or "windows," Turtle Dove. (After Houghton.) and are sacred to their use. The immense compact masses of these birds as they are seen flying to their houses or places of resort "can never be forgotten by Eastern travellers. They sometimes resemble a distant cloud, and are so dense as to obscure the rays of the sun. Hence the allusion in Isa 60:8. Tristram says that the pigeon tribe abound in Palestine to a degree unknown in other countries. The great abundance of plants of the clover and vetch family accounts for their numbers. Rock-doves, in myriads beyond computation, inhabit the caves and fissures which honeycomb the limestone cliffs of Palestine. The wild rock-pigeon (Columba livia), the ancestor of the domestic races, is found here, as well as other species. See Turtledove. Dove's Dung. There are two views concerning the material to which there is reference in 2 Kgs 6:25. Some suppose that this substance was in great demand as a quick manure for those vegetables which might be soonest raised for the famishing Samaritans; others believe that so terrible was the extremity that the people were glad to get even so disgusting a substance as this for food. The great price at which it was held -- about a dollar and a half a pint -- militates against either form of this view. The other view is that the produce of some plant not commonly used for food is intended. The seeds of a kind of millet formerly called by the Hebrews "doves' seed," and of other plants, have been proposed. The root of the star of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum -- i.e. bird-milk) meets with much favor. The bulb of this plant has often been eaten, and it is abundant in Palestine.

Emblem of peace (Genesis 8:7-12). After God's wrath for sin had been executed upon the earth, the dove was thrice sent forth; at the first sending she found no rest for the sole of her foot until she put herself in Noah's (or "comforter") hand, and was drawn into the ark; on the second trip, she brought back the olive leaf, the earnest of the restored earth; on the third trip, she was able to roam at large, no longer needing the ark's shelter. As the raven messenger "going forth to and fro," alighting on but never entering into the ark, symbolizes the unbelieving that have "no peace," "like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest" (Isaiah 57:20-21): so the dove, in its threefold embassy, represents respectively the first return of the soul to its rest, the loving hand of Jesus; its subsequent reception of the dovelike spirit, the earnest of the final inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14); and its actual entrance finally on the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21), where there will be no need of the arklike church to separate between the world and God's people, between the saved and unsaved, where all shall be safe and blessed forever and the church shall be co-extensive with the world. As the lamb is the emblem of the Savior, so the dove of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, because of its gentleness, tenderness, innocence, and constant love (Matthew 3:16). He changes us into His own likeness. The liquid full soft eye is the emblem of the heavenly bride's eye, through which the soul beams out (Song of Solomon 1:15). Contrast the sinner's eye (Matthew 20:15; 2 Peter 2:14). The church's unsheltered innocence in the world calls forth the prayer: "Deliver not the soul of Thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked" (Psalm 74:19; Psalm 55:11). Their plaintive note symbolizes the mourning penitent (Isaiah 59:11). The change from the Egyptian bondage amidst the face blackening potteries to the freedom and beauty of Israel's theocratic state is expressed in Psalm 68:13-14, "though ye have lien (lain) among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," the dove's outspread wings reflecting a golden or silver splendor according to the direction in which the sunshine falls on them, typifying the dovelike spirit of joy and peace beaming forth from the believer, once darkness, but now light in the Lord. The dove's timidity answers to the believer fleeing from sin, self, and wrath, to the refuge in the cleft Rock of ages (Song of Solomon 2:14; Jeremiah 48:28; Isaiah 26:4, margin). Its gregariousness answers to the communion of saints, all having flocked together to Christ (Isaiah 60:8); the returning Israelites shall so flock to Jerusalem, as doves in a cloud to their cotes; and the converted Gentiles to Israel. Saints must imitate its harmless simplicity (Matthew 7:16), but not its silliness (Hosea 7:11). The Israelites under God's visitation of the enemy's invasion "shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys" (Ezekiel 7:16); as doves which usually frequent valleys mount up to the mountains when fearing the birdcatcher (Psalm 11:1), so Israel, once dwelling in the peaceful valleys, shall flee from the foe to the mountains, once the scene of their highplace idolatries, now retributively the scene of their abject flight. In Jeremiah 25:38, "because of the fierceness of the oppressor" (Hebrew: the dove), the allusion is to the Chaldaean standard, the dove, the symbol of Venus. Semiramis the queen was said to have been nourished by doves when exposed at birth, and at death to have been transformed into a dove. In 2 Kings 6:25 the "dove's dung" sold for food in the famine seems to have been a vegetable or poor grain or vetch pea, so named, that grew in the land not built upon and lying, as is common in the East, within the city. Linnaeus identified it with the Ornithogalum umbellatum, with eatable bulbs, "the star of Bethlehem"; the color of the flowers, white mixed with green, originated the name "dove's dung," which is of like color. Keil thinks it to be a saltwort yielding alkali, Herba alkali. Josephus, however (B. J., 5:13, section 7), mentions literal dung having been eaten in terrible famine. The offering of a dove was the alternative permitted to those unable to afford a more costly one, an alternative adopted instead of the lamb by the Virgin mother at her purification, a proof of the poverty to which our Lord stooped at His incarnation. The sellers of doves profaned the temple court by selling doves to meet the wants of the poorer classes (John 2:13-17).