years later, Jesus said that he longed to protect the children of Jerusalem ‘as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’ (Matt. 23:37); and here, in Exodus 19, God likens himself, in his care of them, to an eagle, carrying them to safety on his back. This illustration not only demonstrates God’s tenderness towards Israel, but it also shows that they are safe from any human predator who might shoot arrows at them from the ground.3 In the same way as the mother eagle puts her own body between the