have almost always missed the mark in terms of contextual relevance. The most common reference is to Deuteronomy 32:11, where God is compared to an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings over the people of Israel, but this comparison seems only to beg the question. If this is indeed the allusion that Jesus wished to make, then why did he draw on the example of a mother hen? Perhaps what is really being offered here is imagery suggesting the advent of a