two birds: or, sparrows, The word tzippor:, from the Arabic zaphara:, to fly, is used in the Scriptures to denote birds of every species, particularly small birds. But it is often used in a more restricted sense, as the Hebrew writers assert, to signify the sparrow. Aquinas says the same; and Jerome renders it here the sparrow. So the Greek στρουθια:, in Matthew and Luke, which signifies a sparrow, is rendered by the Syriac translator tzipparin:, the same as the Hebrew tzipporim:. Nor is it peculiar to the Hebrews to give the same name to the sparrow and to fowls of the largest size; for Nicander calls the hen στρουθος κατοικαδος:, the domestic sparrow, and both Plautus and Ausonius call the ostrich, passer marinus:, "the marine sparrow." It is evident, however, that the word in this passage signifies birds in general; for if the sparrow was a clean bird, there was no necessity for commanding a clean one to be taken, since every one of the species was ceremonially clean; but if it was unclean, then it could not be called clean. Leviticus 1:14, Leviticus 5:7, Leviticus 12:8
cedar: Leviticus 14:6, Leviticus 14:49-52; Numbers 19:6
scarlet: Hebrews 9:19
hyssop: Exodus 12:22; Numbers 19:18; Psalms 51:7