“As an eagle that stirreth up her nest,
That fluttereth over her young,
He spread abroad his wings, he took them,
He bare them on his pinions.”
This is good natural history at last. Former versions made these lines read as if the eagle carried its young on its wings, a thing wholly incompatible with flight in any bird. Samuel's record of the lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan is a wonderful poetic outburst and contains reference to this homing flight of the eagle (2Sa_1:23). In Job_9:26 the arrow-like downward plunge of the hunger-driven eagle is used in comparison with the flight of time. In Job 39, which contains more good natural history than any other chapter of the Bible, will be found everything concerning the eagle anyone need know:
“Is it at thy command that the eagle mounteth up,
And maketh her nest on high?
On the cliff she dwelleth, and maketh her home,
Upon the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
From thence she spieth out the prey;
Her eyes behold it afar off.
Her young ones also suck up blood:
And where the slain are, there is she” (Job_39:27-30).
Psa_103:5 is a reference to the long life of the eagle. The bird has been known to live to an astonishing age in captivity; under natural conditions, the age it attains can only be guessed.
“Who satisfieth thy desire with good things,
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.”
Pro_23:5 compares the flight of wealth with that of an eagle; Pro_30:17 touches on the fact that the eye of prey is the first place attacked in eating, probably because it is the most vulnerable point and so is frequently fed to the young. Pro_30:19 :
“The way of an eagle in the air;
The way of a serpent upon a rock:
The way of a ship in the midst of the sea;
And the way of a man with a maiden.”
This reference to the eagle is to that wonderful power of flight that enables a bird to hang as if frozen in the sky, for long periods appearing to our sight immovable, or to sail and soar directly into the eye of the sun, seeming to rejoice in its strength of flight and to exult in the security and freedom of the upper air.
The word “way” is here improperly translated. To the average mind it always means a road, a path. In this instance it should be translated:
The characteristics of an eagle in the air;
The habit of a serpent upon the rock;
The path of a ship in the midst of the sea;
And the manner of a man with a maid.
Each of these lines stood a separate marvel to Agur, and had no connection with the others (but compare The Wisdom of Solomon 5:10, 11, and see WAY).Isa_40:31 is another flight reference. Jer_49:16 refers to the inaccessible heights at which the eagle loves to build and rear its young. Jer_49:22 refers to the eagle's power of flight. Eze_1:10 recounts a vision of the prophet in which strange living creatures had faces resembling eagles. The same book (Eze_17:3) contains the parable of the eagle: “Thus saith the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar.” Hos_8:1 is another flight reference. Oba_1:4 is almost identical with Jer_49:16. The next reference is that of Micah, and really refers to the griffon vulture (Mic_1:16). In Hab_1:8 the reference is to swift flight. Mat_24:28 undoubtedly refers to vultures. In Rev_4:7 the eagle is used as a symbol of strength. In Rev_8:13 the bird is represented as speaking: “And I saw, and I heard an eagle (the King James Version “angel”), flying in mid heaven, saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, woe, for them that dwell on the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, who are yet to sound.” The eagle makes its last appearance in the vision of the woman and the dragon Rev_12:14).
