Jeremiah 48:28

48:28 Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab.

Go and live in the cliffs.

Be like a dove that makes its nest

high on the sides of a ravine. ¹ 

Psalms 11:1

Psalm 11 ² 

For the music director; by David.

11:1 In the Lord I have taken shelter. ³ 

How can you say to me, ⁴ 

“Flee to a mountain like a bird! ⁵ 

Psalms 55:6

55:6 I say, ⁶  “I wish I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and settle in a safe place!

Isaiah 16:2

16:2 At the fords of the Arnon ⁷ 

the Moabite women are like a bird

that flies about when forced from its nest. ⁸ 

Revelation 12:14

12:14 But ⁹  the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she could fly out into the wilderness, ¹⁰  to the place God ¹¹  prepared for her, where she is taken care of – away from the presence of the serpent – for a time, times, and half a time. ¹² 

[48:28]  ¹ tn Heb “in the sides of the mouth of a pit/chasm.” The translation follows the suggestion of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 321. The point of the simile is inaccessibility.

[11:1]  ² sn Psalm 11. The psalmist rejects the advice to flee from his dangerous enemies. Instead he affirms his confidence in God’s just character and calls down judgment on evildoers.

[11:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.

[11:1]  ⁴ tn The pronominal suffix attached to נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is equivalent to a personal pronoun. See Ps 6:3.

[11:1]  ⁵ tc The MT is corrupt here. The Kethib (consonantal text) reads: “flee [masculine plural!] to your [masculine plural!] mountain, bird.” The Qere (marginal reading) has “flee” in a feminine singular form, agreeing grammatically with the addressee, the feminine noun “bird.” Rather than being a second masculine plural pronominal suffix, the ending כֶם- (-khem) attached to “mountain” is better interpreted as a second feminine singular pronominal suffix followed by an enclitic mem (ם). “Bird” may be taken as vocative (“O bird”) or as an adverbial accusative of manner (“like a bird”). Either way, the psalmist’s advisers compare him to a helpless bird whose only option in the face of danger is to fly away to an inaccessible place.

[55:6]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the descriptive (present progressive) force of the verbs in v. 5.

[16:2]  ⁷ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[16:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a bird fleeing, thrust away [from] a nest, the daughters of Moab are [at] the fords of Arnon.”

[12:14]  ⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.

[12:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “desert.”

[12:14]  ¹¹ tn The word “God” is supplied based on the previous statements made concerning “the place prepared for the woman” in 12:6.

[12:14]  ¹² tc The reading “and half a time” (καὶ ἥμισυ καιροῦ, kai {hmisu kairou) is lacking in the important uncial C. Its inclusion, however, is supported by {Ì⁴⁷ א A and the rest of the ms tradition}. There is apparently no reason for the scribe of C to intentionally omit the phrase, and the fact that the word “time” (καιρὸν καὶ καιρούς, kairon kai kairou") appears twice before may indicate a scribal oversight.