Isaiah 31:5

5 As birds flying, so doth Jehovah of Hosts Cover over Jerusalem, covering and delivering, Passing over, and causing to escape.'

Isaiah 31:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 31:5

As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend
Jerusalem
As the preceding metaphor expresses the mighty power of God, this his tenderness and affection, as well as his speed and swiftness in the deliverance of his people. As birds in the air, at a distance, especially the eagle, have their eye upon their nests, and their young ones in them, and when in danger fly to their assistance, and hover over them, and about them, to keep off those that would hurt them, or carry them away; so the Lord, on high, sees his people when in distress, and hastens to help them, and does surround, protect, and defend them: thus the Lord did, when Sennacherib with his army besieged Jerusalem; who boasted, with respect to other nations, that he had "found as a nest the riches of the people", and that "there was none that moved the wing against him", ( Isaiah 10:14 ) to which it is thought the allusion is here: defending also he will deliver [it];
from present distress, the siege of the Assyrian army: [and] passing over he will preserve [it];
passing over the city of Jerusalem to the army of the king of Assyria, that lay encamped against it; and smiting that by an angel with a sudden destruction, preserved the city from the ruin it was threatened with. The allusion is rightly thought to be to the Lord's passing over the houses of the Israelites, when he destroyed the firstborn in Egypt, ( Exodus 12:23 ) where the same word is used as here, and nowhere else.

Isaiah 31:5 In-Context

3 And the Egyptians [are men], and not God, And their horses [are] flesh, and not spirit, And Jehovah stretcheth out His hand, And stumbled hath the helper, And fallen hath the helped one, And together all of them are consumed.

4 For thus said Jehovah unto me: `As growl doth the lion and the young lion over his prey, Called against whom is a multitude of shepherds, From their voice he is not affrighted, And from their noise he is not humbled; So come down doth Jehovah of Hosts To war on mount Zion, and on her height.

5 As birds flying, so doth Jehovah of Hosts Cover over Jerusalem, covering and delivering, Passing over, and causing to escape.'

6 Turn back to Him from whom sons of Israel Have deepened apostacy.

7 For in that day despise doth each His idols of silver, and his idols of gold, That your hands made to you -- a sin.