Chickens

The domestic fowl is named in scripture under the figure of the hen and her brood, in a single saying placed in the lament over Jerusalem.

The hen and her brood

In the lament addressed to the city, Jesus draws on the protective gathering of a hen over her chicks: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, even as a hen [gathers] her own brood under her wings, and you⁺ did not want [to]!" (Luke 13:34). The bracketed verb [gathers] supplies the hen's action; the gathering posture is set against Jerusalem's refusal — a refusal voiced in the closing plural "you⁺ did not want [to]." The hen-and-brood image is exhibited as the would-be shelter offered and not taken.