Exodus 19:4

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) I bare you on eagles’ wings.—Comp. Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them upon her wings.” When its young are first fledged, the eagle is said to assist them in their flight by flying beneath them, so that they may settle upon its wings or back, if necessary. God means that He has bestowed upon His people the same tender and powerful care, has borne them up mightily when they might have fallen, supported their first flight as fledglings, and so saved them from disaster.

Brought you unto myself.—Not so much “brought you to my presence here on Sinai,” as “brought you out of Egypt and its corrupting influences (Joshua 24:14), and led you back to my pure worship and true religion.” That is spoken of as accomplished, whereof God had begun the accomplishment.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 19:4. Ye have seen how I bare you on eagles’ wings — A high expression of the wonderful tenderness God showed for them. It denotes great speed; God not only came upon the wing for their deliverance, but he hastened them out, as it were, upon the wing. Also that he did it with great ease, with the strength as well as the swiftness of an eagle. They that faint not, nor are weary, are said to “mount up with wings as eagles,” Isaiah 40:31. Especially it signifies God’s particular care of them, and affection to them. Even Egypt was the nest in which these young ones were first formed as the embryo of a nation: when by the increase of their numbers they grew to some maturity, they were carried out of that nest. I brought you unto myself — They were brought not only into a state of liberty, but into covenant and communion with God. This God aims at in all the gracious methods of his providence and grace, to bring us back to himself, from whom we have revolted, and to bring us home to himself, in whom alone we can be happy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-8 Moses was called up the mountain, and was employed as the messenger of this covenant. The Maker and first Mover of the covenant, is God himself. This blessed charter was granted out of God's own free grace. The covenant here mentioned was the national covenant, by which the Israelites were a people under the government of Jehovah. It was a type of the new covenant made with true believers in Christ Jesus; but, like other types, it was only a shadow of good things to come. As a nation they broke this covenant; therefore the Lord declared that he would make a new covenant with Israel, writing his law, not upon tables of stone, but in their hearts, Jer 31:33; Heb 8:7-10. The covenant spoken of in these places as ready to vanish away, is the national covenant with Israel, which they forfeited by their sins. Unless we carefully attend to this, we shall fall into mistakes while reading the Old Testament. We must not suppose that the nation of the Jews were under the covenant of works, which knows nothing of repentance, faith in a Mediator, forgiveness of sins, or grace; nor yet that the whole nation of Israel bore the character, and possessed the privileges of true believers, as being actually sharers in the covenant of grace. They were all under a dispensation of mercy; they had outward privileges and advantages for salvation; but, like professing Christians, most rested therein, and went no further. Israel consented to the conditions. They answered as one man, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. Oh that there had been such a heart in them! Moses, as a mediator, returned the words of the people to God. Thus Christ, the Mediator, as a Prophet, reveals God's will to us, his precepts and promises; and then, as a Priest, offers up to God our spiritual sacrifices, not only of prayer and praise, but of devout affections, and pious resolutions, the work of his own Spirit in us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

On eagles' wings - Both in the law Deuteronomy 32:11 and in the Gospel Matthew 23:37, the Church is compared to fledgelings which the mother cherishes and protects under her wings: but in the law that mother is an eagle, in the Gospels "a hen"; thus shadowing forth the diversity of administration under each covenant: the one of power, which God manifested when He brought His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and led them into the promised land; the other of grace, when Christ came in humility and took the form of a servant and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Compare also Revelation 12:14.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3-6. Moses went up unto God—the Shekinah—within the cloud (Ex 33:20; Joh 1:18).

Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, &c.—The object for which Moses went up was to receive and convey to the people the message contained in these verses, and the purport of which was a general announcement of the terms on which God was to take the Israelites into a close and peculiar relation to Himself. In thus negotiating between God and His people, the highest post of duty which any mortal man was ever called to occupy, Moses was still but a servant. The only Mediator is Jesus Christ [1Ti 2:5; Heb 12:24].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i. e. Safely, out of the reach of danger; and strongly, against all opposition. Compare Deu 32:11 Isaiah 63:9 Revelation 12:14.

Unto myself, into my presence, and favour, and fellowship, to be my peculiar people, to serve and worship me as your only Lord and King.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians,.... The plagues he brought upon them in Egypt, and the destruction of them at the Red sea; these things they were eyewitnesses of, and needed no other proof or evidence to convince and assure them of them, and therefore must be under obligation to attend to what he was about to recommend unto them, for which reason this is observed:

and how I bare you on eagles' wings; that is, as on eagles' wings, the note of similitude being wanting, but to be supplied; for it cannot be thought that they were literally bore on eagles' wings; but as that creature is reported to be very affectionate to its young, and careful of it, and, as is said, only to one; for, having more, it will cast away all but one, and reserve that, which it carefully nourishes; and being swift of flight, and strong of wing, it will in a remarkable manner take its young upon it, and safely and swiftly convey it where it pleases; of which See Gill on Deuteronomy 32:11. The eagle excels other birds both in its strength and in the size of its body; and especially its pectoral muscles, by which its wings are supported; are very strong, so that it can carry its young, and other things, on its back and wings; and some such thing nature itself seems to have required, as naturalists observe (d); and there are some histories, which, if true, greatly confirm and illustrate this. Aelianus (e) reports of Tilgamus, a Babylonian, and who afterwards was king of Babylon, and who seems to be the Tilgath Pilneser of the Scriptures, king of Assyria, that when a lad, being thrown down from the top of a tower, an eagle, which is a very quick sighted bird, saw him, and, before he came to the ground, flew under him, took him upon its back, and carried him into a garden, and gently let him down. So it is related of Aristomenes (f), that as he was casting headlong into a deep ditch by the Lacedemonians, where they used to throw condemned malefactors, an eagle flew under him, and bore him on its wings, and carried him to the bottom, without any hurt to any part of his body. Jarchi observes, that whereas other birds carry their young between their feet, for fear of those that fly above them, the eagle flying above all others, and so in no fear of them, carries its young upon its wings, judging it better that a dart should pierce that than its young. The Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words,"and I bore you on clouds, as on eagles' wings;''which covered, and protected, and sustained them, as the eagles' wings do its young; the former adds, from Pelusium, a city in Egypt, supposed by the Targumist to be the same with Rameses; where Jarchi observes the people of Israel were very swiftly gathered together as the place of their rendezvous, and were as safely brought from thence to the place where they now were. Thus the Lord showed an affectionate concern for Israel, took them under his care and protection, stood between them and the Egyptians in a pillar of cloud, and secured them from their arrows, and swiftly and safely removed them from the land of Egypt to the place where they now were, distinguishing them from all other nations, having chosen them to be a special people to himself:

and brought you unto myself: to the mountain of God, where he had appeared to Moses, and given this as a sign and token of the truth of his mission, that he and Israel, when brought out of Egypt by him, should serve him on this mount; and now they were brought thither, where he was about not only to grant his presence in a very singular manner, but to deliver his law unto them, and enter into a covenant with them, and establish and settle them as his people; so that they were a people near unto the Lord, taken into covenant, and indulged with communion with him, and made partakers of various distinguished blessings of his: both the above Targums are, "I brought you to the doctrine of my law", to receive it at this mount.

(d) Scheuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 2. p. 186. (e) Hist. Animal. l. 12. c. 21. (f) Pausaniae Messenica, sive, l. 4. p. 250, 251.

Geneva Study Bible

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on {d} eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

(d) For the eagle by flying high, is out of danger, and by carrying her birds on her wings rather than in her talons declares her love.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. Ye] the pron. is emphatic: in Exodus 20:22 expressed by Ye yourselves. on eagles’ wings] A fine figure for the swiftness, the security, and the affectionate care with which the deliverance from Egypt had been effected. Cf. the development of the same figure in Deuteronomy 32:10-11.

‘Eagle,’ though it suffices in a popular version, is not however an exact rend. of the Heb. nésher. As Tristram has shewn (NHB. p. 172 ff.), nésher, on account especially of the term ‘baldness’ in Micah 1:16, must denote really the griffon-vulture, a large and majestic bird, very abundant in Palestine, and constantly seen there circling in the air.

unto myself] i.e. to my abode in Sinai, the ‘mount of God’ (Di.; cf. on Exodus 3:1).

4. In the ‘Blessing of Moses,’ Exodus 33:9, the covenant with the tribe of Levi (i.e. their consecration to the priesthood, which was probably once narrated after Exodus 32:29). Cf. Malachi 2:4-5; Malachi 2:8.

In P:—1. The covenant with Noah, Genesis 6:18; Genesis 9:9-16.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians. God prefaces his appeal to Israel with respect to the future, by reminding them of what he had done for them in the past. In the fewest possible words he recalls to their recollection the whole series of signs and wonders wrought in Egypt, from the turning of the water into blood to the destruction of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea. These, he implies, ought to have taught them to trust him. I bare you on eagle's wings (compare Deuteronomy 32:11), where the metaphor is expanded at considerable length The strength and might of God's sustaining care, and its loving tenderness, are especially glanced at in the comparison. Brought you unto myself. "Brought you," i.e., "to Sinai, the mount of God, where it pleases me especially to reveal myself to you." Exodus 19:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Moses had known from the time of his call that Israel would serve God on this mountain (Exodus 3:12); and as soon as the people were encamped opposite to it, he went up to God, i.e., up the mountain, to the top of which the cloud had probably withdrawn. There God gave him the necessary instructions for preparing for the covenant: first of all assuring him, that He had brought the Israelites to Himself to make them His own nation, and that He would speak to them from the mountain (Exodus 19:4-9); and then ordering him to sanctify the people for this revelation of the Lord (Exodus 19:10-15). The promise precedes the demand; for the grace of God always anticipates the wants of man, and does not demand before it has given. Jehovah spoke to Moses "from Mount Horeb." Moses had probably ascended one of the lower heights, whilst Jehovah is to be regarded as on the summit of the mountain. The words of God (Exodus 19:4.) refer first of all to what He had done for the Egyptians, and how He had borne the Israelites on eagles' wings; manifesting in this way not only the separation between Israel and the Egyptians, but the adoption of Israel as the nation of His especial grace and favour. The "eagles' wings" are figurative, and denote the strong and loving care of God. The eagle watches over its young in the most careful manner, flying under them when it leads them from the nest, least they should fall upon the rocks, and be injured or destroyed (cf. Deuteronomy 32:11, and for proofs from profane literature, Bochart, Hieroz, ii. pp. 762, 765ff.). "And brought you unto Myself:" i.e., not "led you to the dwelling-place of God on Sinai," as Knobel supposes; but took you into My protection and My especial care.