]!y tliy under-stanrliiig: will [tlir] Iiawk tower, ppvfind Ills wings soiitlnvnrd?
P. reliance on tliy biddinc [the] eaglo will soar. Or [it is th"n] that he will make lofty his nest? A i-uck will he inhabit, and [there] roost, U]ion the peak of a rook, even [tl>e] citadel : Thence he has spied food, Trom afar his eyes will look : Then his brood will sip blood ; .\y, wherever [are the] slain, thei'e [is] he!
To the last line in this quotation our Saviour seems to allude in Matt, xxiv, 28. "Wheresoever the carcase
EAGLE
EAGLE
is, there -will the eagles be gathered together ;" that ] is, wherever the Jewish people, who were niorallj' and judicially dead, might be, there would the Koiiian ar- mies, whose standard was an eagle, and whose strength and fierceness resembled that of the king of birds, in comparison with his fellows, pursue and devour them. The ih-oi of Matt, xxiv, 28; Luke xvii, 37, may in- clude the Vultnv Julvus and Neophron percnoptcrus ; thougli, as some eagles pre}' upon dead bodies, there is no necessity to restrict the Greek word to the Vul- iuridcc (see Lucian, Naing. p. 1 ; comp. Seneca, Ep. 95 ; Martial, vi, 62). The iigure of an eagle is now, and has long been, a favorite militiuy ensign. The Per- sians so employed it, which fact illustrates the pas- sage in Isa. xlvi, 11, where Cj'rus is alluded to under the symbol of an "eagle" (-1^^') or "ravenous bird" (compare Xenoph. djrop. vii, 4). The same bird was similarly employed by the Assyrians and the Romans. Eagles are frequently represented in Assyrian sculp- tures attending the soldiers in their battles, and some have hence supposed that they were trained l)irds. Considering, however, the wild and intractable nature of eagles, it is very improbable that this was the case. The representation of these birds was doubtless in- tended to portray the common feature in Eastern bat- tle-field scenery, of birds of prey awaiting to satisfy their hunger on the bodies of the slain. These pas- sages have been b}' some commentators referred to the vulture, on the assumed ground that the eagle never feeds on can-ion, but confines itself to that ^rey which it has killed by its own prowess. This, however, is a mistake (see Yw^\a\,Descript. Anim. p. 12 ; compare Michaelis, fn'e?!/. Blhl. ix,37 sq., and new Orient. Bibl. iii, 43 sq.) ; no such chivalroivs feeling exists in either eagle or lion ; both will feed ignominiously on a bodj' found dead. Any visitor of the British zoological gar- dens may see that the habit imputed is at least not in- variable. (See also Thomson, Land and Book, i, 491.) AquUa hifasciata, of India, was shot bj' Col. Sykes at the carcase of a tiger ; and A. rapax, of South Africa, is "frequently one of the first birds that approaches a dead animal."
Of all known birds, the eagle flies not only the high- est, but also with the greatest rapidity (comp. Homer, II. xxii, 308). To this circumstance there are several striking allusions in the sacred volume. Among the evils threatened to the Israelites in case of their diso- bedience, the prophet names one in the following terms: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth" (Deut. xxviii, 49). The marcli of Nebu- chadnezzar against Jerusalem is predicted in the same terms: " Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles'' (Jer. iv, 1.3"); as is his invasion of ]Moab also: "For thus saith the Lord, Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over IMoab" (chap, xlviii. 40) ; i. e. he shall settle down on the devoted countrv as an eagle over its prej'. (See also Lam. iv, 19 ; Hos. viii, 2 ; Hab. i, 8.)
The eagle, it is said, lives to a great age, and, like other birds of prey, sheds his feathers in the beginning of spring. After this season he appears with fresh strength and vigor, and his old age assumes the aj)- pearance of youth. To this David alludes when grate- fully reviewing the mercies of Jehovah, "AVho satis- fieth tliy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Psa. ciii, 5); as does the prophet, also, when describing the renovating and quickening influences of the Spirit of God: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they sh:ill mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; and they shall walk and not faint" (Isa. xl, 31). Some Jewish interpreters. have illustrated the former passage by a reference to the old fables about the eagle being able to renew his
strength when verj' old (see Bochart, Ilieror.. ii, 747). But modern commentators for the most part are in- clined to think that these words refer to the eagle after the moulting season, when the bird is more full of ac- tivity than before. Others prefer Hengstenberg's ex- jilanation on Psa. ciii, 5, "Thj' j'outh is renewed, so that in point of strength thou art like the eagle."
The passage in Mic. i, IG, "Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle," has been understood by Bochart {IJieroz. ii, 744) and others to refer to the eagle at the time of its moulting in the spring. Oedman (Vermischte Samml. i, G4) erroneously refers the baldness spoken of by the prophet to point to the Vultur barhatus {Gi/patvs), the bearded vulture or lammergej'er, which he sujiposed was bald. It appears to us to be extremely improba- ble that there is any reference in the passage under consideration to eagles moulting. Allusion is here made to the custom of shaving the head as a token of mourning; but there would be little or no apjiropri- ateness in the comparison of a shaved head with an eagle at the time of moulting. But if the mshtr is supposed to denote the griffon vulture {Vidlurfulviis'), the simile is peculiarly appropriate ; it may be re- marked that the Hebrew verb kdrach (H "p) signifies '■ to make bald on the back part of the head ;" tlie no- tion here conveyed is very applicable to the \\hole head and neck of this bird, which is destitute of true feathers. The direction of the prophet is to a token of mourning, which was usually assumed by making bald the crown of the head ; here, however, it was to be enlarged, extended, as the baldness of the eagle. Exactly answering to this idea is Mr. Bruce's descrip- tion of the head of the "golden eagle:" the crown of his head was bare : so was the front where the bill and skull joined. The meaning of the projihet, there- fore, seems to lie that the people were not to content themselves with shaving the crown of the head merely, as on ordinary occasions, but, under this special visi- tation of retributive justice, were to extend the bald- ness over the entire head.