Nest

The umbrella collects two figurative uses of a bird's nest: the nest set in a rock as an image of secure dwelling, and the eagle stirring up her nest as an image of how Yahweh handles his young.

Nest in the Rock

Balaam's oracle on the Kenite uses the nest as a figure of fastness in the cliffs: "And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is your dwelling-place, And your nest is set in the rock" (Nu 24:21). The poetic parallel — strong dwelling-place / nest set in the rock — makes the nest a synonym for the entrenched mountain refuge of the Kenite.

The Eagle Stirring Her Nest

The Song of Moses uses the same image, but in motion. Yahweh's care for Israel is figured as the eagle who unsettles her own nest to teach her young to fly: "As an eagle that stirs up her nest, That hovers over her young, He spread abroad his wings, he took them, He bore them on his pinions" (De 32:11). The nest is left behind as the parent bird carries the fledglings on her wings — the figure runs from disturbance through hovering protection to flight on the parent's pinions.