Devarim 32:11 (also Shemot 19:4) – On the wings of eagles

דברים לב:יא - כנשר יעיר קנו, על גוזליו ירחף, יפרש כנפיו יקחהו, ישאהו על אברתו. 

Devarim 32:11 records that just like a nesher (a bird) protects its young so too G-d protected the Jewish people, and as an example of this protection, the second half of the verses states that the nesher would put is young on its wings. This imagery is also mentioned in Shemot 19:4, but it is difficult since physically it is not clear that birds can put their young on their wings. Thus, Rabbenu Saadiah Gaon (on Shemot 19:4, also see Luzzatto on Shemot 19:4), writes that the phrase should be understood figuratively that G-d took care of the people. However, it seems that the imagery can be understood literally.

Driver (1955) discusses the identity of the nesher and he concludes that "the vulture is probably commonly intended, if only because it is the most easily and often seen of the great birds of prey. At the same time, the nesher undoubtedly includes the eagle." Three years later, (1958), he wrote that he "wrongly ascribed Shemot 19:4 and Devarim 32:11 to the vulture because of the great span of its wings, forgetting that instances of the eagle carrying its young on its back or wings had been recorded." He then recorded two observers of birds who noted that when the eagle teaches its young to fly it pushes the little bird out of the nest and then when the young bird falls down, the eagle swoops underneath the young bird. The eagle will repeat the process until its young learns how to fly. Thus, the eagle does not put its young on its back but it does carry its young on its back, as recorded in Shemot 19:4 and Devarim 32:11. Driver notes that both of these cases were with a golden eagle, and he concludes that "in the two passages, the nesher will be the golden eagle."

N. Leibowitz (1976a, pp. 295,296) compares the two verses, Shemot 19:4 and Devarim 32:11, and she claims that the verses present different images. One reason is that she claims that in Devarim 32:11, "it is doubtful if the idea of training and education can be read into it and the surrounding verses." Yet, as pointed out to me by my son Alon, this idea that the eagle carries its young when it is teaching them to fly, implies that the imagery of Devarim 32:11 refers both to G-d protecting the Jewish people and to G-d teaching the people.

Bibliography:

Driver, Godfrey Rolles, 1955, Birds in the Old Testament: I. Birds in laws, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 86, pp. 5-20.

-----, 1958, Once again birds in the Bible, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 90, pp. 56-58.

Leibowitz, Nehama (1905-1997), 1976a, Studies in Shemot, translated by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.