Exodus 19:4, On Eagles’ Wings

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

//What a glorious picture this is, of God saving his people on the wings of an eagle! Does it change the picture if the word eagle–Hebrew nesher–is probably not an eagle at all, but a vulture? Note that the same Hebrew word nesher is translated differently in this verse:

The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.–Proverbs 30:17

Most scholars agree, a more precise translation is “vulture.” A couple more samples:

Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like vultures; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. –Isaiah 40:31

He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like a vulture that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. –Deuteronomy 32:10-11