winter upon them." Hosea said, "As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird." And because he was painting a picture of the distress which should fall upon the Israelites for their many sins, one naturally thinks of a bird of swift flight, as the swallow. The origin of the oft-quoted phrase, "A little bird told me," can be found in Ecclesiastes: 66 Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought; And that which hath wings shall tell the matter." Jeremiah complained, "Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds around about are against her." Jesus, in illustration of His devotion to His ministry, was thinking of the birds when He said: Balaam remembered the secure bird homes he had seen among the shelving rocks and on the high mountains when he said to the Kenites: 66 Strong is thy dwelling place, And thou puttest thy nest in a rock." Job had the picture of the happy home-life of a pair of breeding birds in mind when, in recounting the days of his prosperity, he cried: 66 Then I said I shall die in my nest, And I shall multiply my days as the sand." A proverb in Ecclesiastes contains these lines: "Birds will resort unto their like; And truth will return unto them that practice her." Habakkuk, in reproving the Chaldeans for covetousncss, drew on his knowledge of the habits of the birds when he gave the warning, "Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high." Throughout the Bible there is constant mention of the practices of snaring and netting birds; some for food, some for sacrifice, and some, undoubtedly, for caged pets, since James wrote that "every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind." Jeremiah compared the civil state of Judah to "a cage full of birds." And he exhibited a sense of humor when he did it, for, no doubt, Judah did resemble the cage of a dealer in birds, packed with many species, rebellious in confinement, and quarreling over perching-places or food. The Bible makes it quite evident that even in those early days people so loved the graceful motion and cheery songs of the birds that they constructed rude cages of peeled willow wands and confined beautiful feathered creatures for pets. Job inquired: 66 Wilt thou play with him as a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens ?" Jeremiah said, "As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit." Jesus referred to the sale of sparrows, which seemed to have been a common and constant practice; and it was He who entered the temple and "overthrew the seats of them that sold doves." |