Peacock

תוכיים , 1Ki 10:29; 2Ch 9:21; a bird distinguished by the length of its tail, and the brilliant spots with which it is adorned; which displays all that dazzles in the sparkling lustre of gems, and all that astonishes in the rainbow. The peacock is a bird originally of India; thence brought into Persia and Media. Aristophanes mentions Persian peacocks; and Suidas calls the peacock the Median bird. From Persia it was gradually dispersed into Judea, Egypt, Greece, and Europe. If the fleet of Solomon visited India, they might easily procure this bird, whether from India itself, or from Persia; and certainly the bird by its beauty was likely to attract attention, and to be brought among other rarities of natural history by Solomon’s servants, who would be instructed to collect every curiosity in the countries they visited.

A good deal of discussion has token place respecting the precise meaning of the word which is thus rendered in the Authorized Version (1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21). Some have supposed that a crested parrot is meant, others that the pheasant is the bird intended, but the weight of evidence is in favor of the usual rendering.

There are only two species of true peacocks, viz., that under consideration, which is the Pavo cristatus of Linn.; and another, Pavo muticus, more recently discovered, which differs in some particulars, and originally belongs to Japan and China. Peacocks bear the cold of the Himalayas: they run with great swiftness, and where they are, serpents do not abound, as they devour the young with great avidity, and, it is said, attack with spirit even the cobra de capello when grown to considerable size, arresting its progress and confusing it by the rapidity and variety of their evolutions around it, till exhausted with fatigue it is struck on the head and dispatched.

A detailed description of a species so well known, we deem superfluous.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, I. M. Casanowicz

Traditional rendering of "tukkiyyim," mentioned among the creatures brought by Solomon's ships from Tarshish (I Kings x. 22). The peacock is an Indian bird (comp. the Malabar "togai" and the Tamil "tokei" for the "tail" of the peacock; A. V. renders "renanim," Job xxxix. 13, by "peacock"; but see Ostrich). The Talmud uses the term (comp. the Greek ταός), and forbids the crossing of the peacock with the hen (B. Ḳ 55a). From Shab. 130a and parallels, it would appear that, contrary to present conceptions, the peacock was in Talmudic times considered a clean bird.

Bibliography:

Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 223;

Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, p. 189.

pē´kok (תּכּיּים, tukkı̄yı̄m (plural); Latin Pavo cristatus): A bird of the genus Pavo. Japan is the native home of the plainer peafowl; Siam, Ceylon and India produce the commonest and most gorgeous. The peacock has a bill of moderate size with an arched tip, its cheeks are bare, the eyes not large, but very luminous, a crest of 24 feathers 2 inches long, with naked shafts and broad tips of blue, glancing to green. The neck is not long but proudly arched, the breast full, prominent and of bright blue green, blue predominant. The wings are short and ineffectual, the feathers on them made up of a surprising array of colors. The tail consists of 18 short, stiff, grayish-brown feathers. Next is the lining of the train, of the same color. The glory of this glorious bird lies in its train. It begins on the back between the wings in tiny feathers not over 6 inches in length, and extends backward. The quills have thick shafts of purple and green shades, the eye at the tip of each feather from one-half to 2 inches across, of a deep peculiar blue, surrounded at the lower part by two half-moon-shaped crescents of green. Whether the train lies naturally, or is spread in full glory, each eye shows encircled by a marvel of glancing shades of green, gold, purple, blue and bronze. When this train is spread, it opens like a fan behind the head with its sparkling crest, and above the wondrous blue of the breast. The bird has the power to contract the muscles at the base of the quills and play a peculiar sort of music with them. It loves high places and cries before a storm in notes that are startling to one not familiar with them. The bird can be domesticated and will become friendly enough to take food from the hand. The peahen is smaller than the cock, her neck green, her wings gray, tan and brown - but she has not the gorgeous train. She nests on earth and breeds with difficulty when imported, the young being delicate and tender. The grown birds are hardy when acclimated, and live to old age. By some freak of nature, pure white peacocks are at times produced. Aristophanes mentioned peafowl in his Birds, II. 102, 269. Alexander claimed that he brought them into Greece from the east, but failed to prove his contention. Pliny wrote that Hortensius was the first to serve the birds for food, and that Aufidius Lurco first fattened and sold them in the markets. It was the custom to skin the bird, roast and recover it and send it to the table, the gaudy feathers showing.

The first appearance of the bird in the Bible occurs in a summing-up of the wealth and majesty of Solomon (1Ki 10:22: “For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks”). (Here the Septuagint translates πελεκητοί, pelekētoı́ (s.c. λίθοι, lı́thoi), = “(stones) carved with an ax.”) The same statement is made in 2Ch 9:21: “For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks” Septuagint omits). There is no question among scholars and scientists but that these statements are true, as the ships of Solomon are known to have visited the coasts of India and Ceylon, and Tarshish was on the Malabar coast of India, where the native name of the peacock was tokei, from which tukkı̄yı̄m undoubtedly was derived (see GOLD, and The Expository Times, IX, 472). The historian Tennant says that the Hebrew names for “ivory” and “apes” were also the same as the Tamil. The reference to the small, ineffectual wing of the peacock which scarcely will lift the weight of the body and train, that used to be found in Job, is now applied to the ostrich, and is no doubt correct:

“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;

But are they the pinions and plumage of love?”

(Job 39:13).

While the peacock wing seems out of proportion to the size of the bird, it will sustain flight and bear the body to the treetops. The wing of the ostrich is useless for flight.

Peacock. According to the KJV, Solomon imported peacocks from other nations for his royal courts in Israel (1Ki 10:22; 2Ch 9:21). A peacock, the male of the species, is about the size of a turkey, with feathers of brilliant blue, green, and purple. He parades in front of the female, spreading his train of gorgeous long plumes behind him like a huge fan. Some versions of the Bible translate this term as monkeys, peacocks, or baboons.

A peacock is the male of the peafowl species (Pavo cristatus). The female is called a peahen. The peacock is known for its bright colors and long tail feathers. Its breast is a shiny metallic blue. Each tail feather has a round “eye” pattern near the tip. When the tail is down, the feathers form a train that can be as long as 1.8 meters (6 feet). The peacock can lift this train into a large fan during courtship. It also shakes the feathers to make a rustling sound. The peahen has duller colors and no long train.

Peacocks in the Bible

Peacocks are mentioned in 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21. Some scholars think these passages may refer instead to Old World monkeys, baboons, or guinea hens from the upper Nile River area. Others believe peacocks were brought to Egypt by the Phoenicians, possibly as early as the time of King Solomon. Solomon’s trade ships may have gone as far as India, where peacocks are native.

The Greeks and Romans also knew the peacock. Alexander the Great admired its beauty and did not allow his soldiers to kill it.

Symbolism in Christianity

In early Christian art, the peacock became a symbol of the eternal life promised in the resurrection of Christ. The “eyes” on its feathers came to represent the all-seeing eye of God.

See also Birds.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.