Turtle

TURTLE, a clean Bird which is often mentioned in Scripture, and which was sometimes offered in Sacrifice. They might offer either Turtles or young Pigeons. These Sacrifices were appointed in favour of the Poor, who could not go to the Charge of more substantial Sacrifices. Before the giving of the Law, Abraham offered to God a Burnt-offering of an Heifer, a she Goat, a Ram, each of three Gen. xv. 9.Years old, and of two Birds, which were a Turtle and a Pigeon; and when he cut the other Victims into two Parts, he left the two Birds entire. Moses appointed, that when a Woman came to the Tabernacle, in order to her Purification after Child-birth, if she had Levit. xii. 6, 7, 8.not wherewithal to offer a Lamb for a Sin-Offering, and another for a Burnt-Offering, she should bring two Turtles, or two young Pigeons, one for a Burnt-Offering, and the other for a Sin-Offering. ‘Twas thus that the Holy Virgin did at the time of her Purification, Luke ii. 24.

Numb. vi. 10.The Nazarites offered two Turtles, or two young Pigeons, at the Door of the Tabernacle; one to be sacrificed for Sin, and the other for a Burnt-offering, when during the time of their Nazariteship, they had been accidentally defiled by the Presence of a dead Body. When a Leper was poor, and could Levit. xiv. 22.not afford to offer the larger Sacrifices, the Law appointed him, on the Day of his Purification, to offer two Turtles, or two young Pigeons, one for a Sin-Offering, and the other for a Burnt-Offering. A Man troubled with a Genorrhea, or a Woman that had an irregular Flux, were each obliged to offer two Turtles, or two young Pigeons, one for Sin, and the other for a Holocaust, and that on the eighth Day that followed their Cure. A Man that had unadvisedly touched any impure Animal, or had rashly made any inconsiderate Vows or Promises, when he was sensible of his Error, if he was poor, he was to offer to the Lord two Turtles, or two young Pigeons, one for Sin, and the other for an Holocaust. These are the Cases in which they offered Turtles in Sacrifice.

Jerem. viii. 7.Jeremiah says, that the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. And indeed the Turtle is a Bird of Passage, as well as the Swallow and the Stork: The Spouse in the Canticles compares the Cheeks of his Spouse,¹ to the Beauty of the Turtle: Pulchræ sunt genæ tuæ sicut Turturis. But the Hebrew intimates, Thy cheeks are comely with rows of Jewels. The Women of that Country wore a kind of Bracelets about their Faces. See the Travels of M. D’Arvieux to the Camp of the Grand Emir, p. 27, 28.

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