The raven

(Gen. 8:7) — a bird of the predatory kind, which, according to the Law of Moses, as feeding on carcasses, is unclean (Lev. 11:15; Deut. 14:6). This bird especially loves solitary and desolate places (Isa. 34:11). Feeding on carcasses, the raven first of all pecks out its victim’s eyes. In the Book of Proverbs it is said: “the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it” (30:17). Caring for the whole world, for all creatures, and especially for man, God, according to Holy Scripture, also cares for the ravens: “He heedeth the cry of the young ravens, which cry unto Him, and He giveth them their needful food” (Job 38:41; Ps. 147 [146]:9).

Noah sent out a raven to learn the state of the earth; but the raven, it says in the Book of Genesis, went to and fro, no doubt finding abundant food for itself in the carcasses floating on the surface of the waters (Gen. 8:7, and elsewhere). But this voracious bird, in its turn, once served, in the right hand of Providence, as an instrument for providing sustenance in the wilderness for the prophet Elijah, bringing him bread and meat morning and evening (1 Kings 17:4–6). The blackness, with a sheen, of the raven’s breast and wings, in the Song of Songs (5:11), serves as an image of beauty: “his locks (of the beloved) are bushy, and black as a raven.”