Hen

The hen appears in scripture as a figure for protective gathering — specifically Jesus's lament over Jerusalem, who would not be gathered.

A Hen Gathering Her Brood

The image rises out of Jesus's address to the city: "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 figure has three moving parts. The hen is the gatherer; her brood is the children of Jerusalem; the wings are the place of refuge. The bracketed "[gathers]" marks the verb supplied to complete the figure — the original is compressed, and the UPDV makes the gathering action explicit. The plural-you marker ⁺ falls on the unwilling: it is the city, not its individual children alone, that has refused the shelter the hen would have given.