As an eagle stirs up its nest, flutters over its young, spreads abroad its wings, takes them, bears them on its wings:
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
He supported them like the eagle, which was accustomed to examine its progeny, so as to keep and to bring up those whom it observed to possess the qualities of a true offspring and the gift of an undamaged constitution and to reject those in whom it detected weakness of a degenerate origin even at that tender age. .
Shoulders, as (Exodus xix. 4,) upon the wings of eagles. It is said that the eagle hovers over the nest, to encourage her young ones to fly, and when she sees them exhausted, she takes them upon her back. This similitude shows the extreme affection of God towards his people. Hebrew and Chaldean may also be, "as an eagle makes (Calmet; or stirs up) her nest, hatches her young, spreads her wings over them, and bears them upon her wings, so the Lord alone was his leader. "(Haydock)
Like an eagle, the Lord spreads his wings over us, his nestlings. There the Lord is compared with the eagle guarding its young. The simile therefore is appropriate that God protects us as a father and as a hen guarding her chicks lest they be snatched away by a hawk. Nevertheless a different interpretation is also permissible. “With his pinions he will cover you”: he will be lifted up on the cross; he will stretch forth his hands to shelter us. “And under his wings you shall take refuge.”
The song in Deuteronomy says that he bore the people of Israel upon his shoulders and like the eagle guarded them. This same versicle may be interpreted also of the Savior because on the cross he gave us the shelter of his wings. “Under his wings you shall take refuge.” “All the day long I stretched out my hand to a people unbelieving and contradicting.” The hands of the Lord lifted up to heaven were not begging for help but were sheltering us, his miserable creatures.
The Lord protects us, his little ones. He nourishes us and restores us—not in a heavy and burdensome way but with gentle and kind protection. He shows his mercies toward us, as if extending his wings over us as a bird does. Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Deuteronomy
