17
If they are not able to keep him away, they do what they can to help their young by flying in circles around them in the anguish of love, warning them with their own calls.
15
For example, among birds, the ones that are tame protect their young by building on the housetops,
16
and the others, by building in precipitous chasms and in holes and tops of trees, hatch the nestlings and ward off the intruder.
17
If they are not able to keep him away, they do what they can to help their young by flying in circles around them in the anguish of love, warning them with their own calls.
18
And why is it necessary to demonstrate sympathy for children by the example of unreasoning animals,
19
since even bees at the time for making honeycombs defend themselves against intruders as though with an iron dart sting those who approach their hive and defend it even to the death?
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.