ISBE
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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia · 1915

Chirp

cherp (tsaphaph):

"Chirp" occurs in the King James Version marginand the Revised Version, margin of Isaiah 29:4, "Thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper (margin, "chirp") out of the dust." The reference is to "the sounds made by wizards and ventriloquists, who imitated the chirping of the bats which was supposed to proceed from the Iower world"; hence, for "peep" of the King James Version in Isaiah 8:19 we have "chirp"--"wizards, that chirp and that mutter."

Figurative:

We have also in Isaiah 10:14 the Revised Version (British and American), in a figurative allusion to young birds, "chirped" instead of "peeped."

See CHATTER.

W. L. Walker

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr, general editor (Chicago: Howard-Severance, 1915). Public domain. Text as published by biblestudytools.com. From the Encyclosphere, the open network of encyclopedias run by the Knowledge Standards Foundation. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: links to 1, 2, and 3 John that our source pointed at the Gospel of John corrected; our source’s section marks set as headings.