dove and its chick. Creator: Paul S. Taylor.

Doves what does Scripture say about them?

In their wild state doves generally build their nests in the clefts of rocks, but when domesticated raised dovecotes (Latin: columbaria) are prepared for them (Song of Songs 2:14; Jer. 48:28; Isa. 60:8).

Why were doves sacrificed to God?

Doves and turtle-doves were the only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, as they were clean according to the Mosaic law (Genesis 15:9; Leviticus 5:7; 12:6; Luke 2:24).

They sacrificed doves because the Torah named turtledoves and young pigeons as the lawful lesser offering, mainly so people who could not afford a lamb could still bring a sacrifice.

Only those two birds were allowed. Leviticus 1:14 permits a burnt offering of turtledoves or young pigeons.

Other clean birds were okay for eating, but not to be put on the altar. The usual larger animals offered were an unblemish bull, a ram, or a lamb. Birds sit a step down that scale, and in some sin offerings a 10th of an ephah of flour sits below the birds (Leviticus 5:7–13).

The law allows doves as a sacrifice in a fixed set of cases:

Availability explains the pair of species. Turtledoves migrate through the land in the warmer months and leave in autumn (Jeremiah 8:7; Song of Songs 2:12). Pigeons were resident and commonly kept in dovecotes, so one or the other could be had all year.

Later Jewish comment treats the bird and the ox as equal if the offerer’s intent is toward God: the size of the animal is not the measure.

What is Noah’s dove about?

The dove became a harbinger of peace because of Noah (Genesis 8:8-10). After the Floodwaters receded, Noah sent out a dove, but it found no resting place and so returned to the ark. Noah waited 7 days and sent out the dove again. This time it returned with a freshly picked olive leaf, indicating that the water had abated and life was returning to the land’s surface. 7 days later, he sent out the dove again, and this time it did not return.

Symbol of the Holy Spirit of God

Doves are a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32). All four Gospels say that at Jesus’ baptism the Spirit came down on him “like a dove”. Luke adds that it was “in bodily form.”

Use in affectionate poetry

Doves are a symbol of tender and devoted affection. Song of Songs calls the beloved a dove for her beauty and tenderness.

…My dove, my perfect one… —Song of Songs 5:2 excerpt

O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret place of the steep pathway,
Let me see your appearance,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your appearance is lovely. —Song of Songs 2:14

Why did David wish he had the wings of a dove?

David in his distress wished that he had the wings of a dove, that he might fly away and be at rest (Psalm 55:6-8).

Golden doves

There is a species of dove found at Damascus “whose feathers, all except the wings, are literally as yellow as gold” (68:13).

Symbol of purity

Doves are sometimes viewed as a symbol of purity (Psalm 68:13). The dove became a symbol of purity mainly in Christian use, and the reason is the record of Christ’s baptism, plus the bird’s gentle look and behavior.

Early Christian art then made that the standard picture of the Holy Spirit: a white dove at the Jordan, at the Annunciation, and over the font. Once the Spirit was shown that way, the bird borrowed the Spirit’s associations — holiness, innocence, a clean presence. Jesus’ own line in Matthew 10:16, “innocent as doves,” fixed the gentleness reading. White plumage did the rest. A white dove reads as unstained in a way a raven or a vulture does not.

Isaiah’s distressed moan

…I moan like a dove;
My eyes look wistfully to the heights;
O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security. —Isaiah 38:14 excerpt LSB

Metaphor for a lack of wisdom

So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without a heart of wisdom… —Hosea 7:11 excerpt

Doves and pigeons are famous for flimsy nests. A typical dove nest is a loose platform of twigs, sometimes so thin you can see the eggs through the bottom.

The male brings sticks one at a time; the female arranges them. There is little weaving, no deep cup, and often no real lining. Mourning doves are the classic case: a handful of twigs on a branch, in a gutter, or in a hanging basket, with the two white eggs sitting in plain view. Rock pigeons, the ancestors of city pigeons, do the same on a ledge, and in town they will use wire, plastic, and paper if twigs are scarce. Some tropical pigeons build a slightly thicker stick pad, but a flimsy platform is the family style, not a defect of one species.

It looks careless because people compare it to such nests as an oriole’s pouch or a robin’s mud-lined cup. Those nests have to hold eggs in a fork with no other support. Doves are built around a different site. Wild rock doves nest on cliff ledges and in crevices, where the rock already keeps the eggs from rolling. A few sticks are enough to stop them shifting. Tree-nesting doves seem to keep the same simple plan when they moved into branches. They are adequate nests if the measure is whether the eggs stay put long enough to hatch.

There is a genuine difference in bird intelligence. Corvids and parrots have far more neurons into their forebrain — on the order of 6 to 17 times as many as a dove or pigeon — and they exhibit planning, tool use, and flexible problem-solving that doves usually fail. Dove calls are also largely innate. They are not vocal learners the way songbirds and parrots are, so their voice is not perceived as evidence of a busy mind.

On the tasks they are built for, doves are sharp. Researchers who expected a dull pecking machine have repeatedly had to revise their thinking. Homing pigeons navigate by the sun, the Earth’s magnetic field, smell, and landmarks, including major roads. In labs they remember more than a hundred images for years, sort paintings by style, pick malignant tissue images about as well as people, handle quantity, and manage simple transitive inference — if A beats B and B beats C, then A beats C.

Measured against a raven, a pigeon is limited. Measured by what it actually does — visual memory, categorization, and finding home from hundreds of miles away pigeons are amazing creatures.

Dove’s excrement/dung

Hebrew: חֲרֵי יוֹנִים —transliteration: chire yonim

During a terrible famine in Samaria during Ben-hadad’s siege, Scripture says,

…a 4th of a kab of dove’s dung for 5 shekels of silver. —2 Kings 6:25 excerpt

This amount was roughly a pint or less.

What this was used for is not clear. Possibly it was famine food, bought because nothing better was left inside the walls, or it was used as dry fuel. In addition, Jewish historian Josephus notes that dove’s droppings were sometimes used in place of salt (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9.4.4).

Either way, the chronicler of the kings’ point was the price. Something that was normally refuse, or at best a poor man’s vegetable, was selling for several days’ wages in a measure small enough to hold in the hand. The next scene—two women bargaining over whose child to eat (2 Kings 6:26–29)—shows how far the siege had gone past that.

Q & A

Were doves used in idolatry?

Doves were used in the cult of the goddess Ishtar. From the early 3rd millennium onward, doves appear on objects linked to Ishtar/Inanna/Aphrodite/etc. Lead dove figurines were found in her temple at Ashur (13th century BC), and a fresco at Mari shows a large dove emerging from a palm in her sanctuary. Ishtar was also imagined in dove form, and she was linked to love and sex. The dove motif included cult furniture and votive images.

Q & A

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Article Version: October 9, 2026