Deuteronomy 22:6,7
If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We are amazed to find the Most High God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Sustainer of the vast universe, condescending to legislate about the matter of a bird’s nest; and yet why should we be amazed when we know that it is just the same to Him to provide for a sparrow as to feed a thousand millions of people daily?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): But doth God take care for birds?
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Birds? Yes, God takes care of them, and feeds them, and is with them when they die, Matthew 6:26; Matthew 10:29.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): This is one of those merciful constitutions in the law of Moses, which, inspiring the minds of His people with a regard for the animal creation, tended much to humanize their hearts, to breed in them a sense of the Divine Providence extending its care to all its creatures; and to teach them to exercise their dominion over that animal creation with gentleness.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Men were charged to act in kindness even toward the birds.
MATTHEW HENRY: Perhaps to this law our Saviour alludes, Luke 12:6, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” This law, forbids us to be cruel to the brute-creatures, or to take a pleasure in destroying them. Though God has made us “wiser than the fowls of heaven,” and given us “dominion over them,” yet we must not abuse them nor rule them with rigour.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): But we may look for a humane precept in this law. The young never knew the sweets of liberty; the dam did: they might be taken and used for any lawful purpose, but the dam must not be brought into a state of captivity.
MATTHEW HENRY: The dam could not have been taken if her concern for her eggs or young had not detained her upon the nest when otherwise she could easily have secured herself by flight. Now, since it is a thousand pities that she should fare the worse for that which is her praise, the law takes care that she shall be let go. The remembrance of this may perhaps, some time or other, keep us from doing a hard or unkind thing to those whom we have at our mercy.
ADAM CLARKE: They who can act otherwise must be either very inconsiderate or devoid of feeling; and such persons can never be objects of God’s peculiar care and attention, and therefore need not expect that it shall be well with them, or that they shall prolong their days on the earth. Every thing contrary to the spirit of mercy and kindness the ever blessed God has in utter abhorrence. And we should remember a fact—that he who can exercise cruelty towards a sparrow or a wren, will, when circumstances are favorable, be cruel to his fellow creatures.
THOMAS COKE: To this law Moses adds an exhortation; “that it may be well with thee,” as much as to say, “This humanity, this compassion, is one of the things which will very much contribute to draw down upon you the blessing of God.”
MATTHEW HENRY: The Jews say, “This is the least of all the commandments of the law of Moses,” and yet the same promise is here made to the observance of it, that is made to the keeping of the fifth commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” Exodus 20:12, which is one of the greatest—“that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days;” for, as disobedience in a small matter shows a very great contempt of the law, so obedience in a small matter shows a very great regard to it. He that let go a bird out of his hand (which was worth two in the bush) purely because God bade him, in that made it to appear that he “esteemed all God’s precepts concerning all things to be right,” and that he could deny himself rather than sin against God.
ADAM CLARKE: This passage may be understood literally. If they destroyed both young and old, must not the breed soon fail, and would it not in the end be ill with them; and by thus cutting off the means of their continual support, must not their days be shortened on the land?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This law was made partly to preserve the species of birds…This law does not prohibit the taking of her in any other place but in her nest.
THOMAS COKE: There is a fixed season for every thing, Ecclesiastes 3:1…The law seems also to regard posterity; for, by letting the dam go free, the breed may be continued; and as the reason of the law subsists now as well as then, it is doubtless obligatory upon us.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Regard was had, indeed, to the preservation of the breed; but, still there is no question but that it was God’s intention to accustom His people to study humanity. For, if there be one drop of compassion in us, it will never enter into our minds to kill an unhappy little bird, which so burns either with the desire of offspring, or with love towards its little ones, as to be heedless of its life, and to prefer endangering itself to the desertion of its eggs, or its brood. Wherefore, it is not to be doubted but that in this elementary lesson, God prohibited His people from savageness and cruelty.
JOHN GILL: Wherefore the intention of this law is to teach humanity, compassion, and pity in men to one another, and to forbid cruelty, covetousness, and such like vices; as also to instruct in the doctrine of Providence, which has a respect to birds.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): If a gracious God judged it proper to give such a demonstration of His mercy, over all His works, so as to issue such a precept to His people to be merciful—what an argument is this for believers in Jesus to repose themselves with full confidence on a God so gracious and merciful.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: It teaches us, in a manner peculiar to itself, the marvellous way in which God provided for everything connected with His people. Nothing escaped His gracious notice; nothing was too trivial for His tender care. No mother could be more careful of the habits and manners of her little child, than the Almighty Creator and moral Governor of the universe was of the most minute details connected with the daily history of His people.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God does not forget the sparrows, but He regards you with far greater interest and care, for He counts the very hairs of your head. He not only knows that there is such a person, but he knows the minutest details of your life and being…And, surely, there is a great force in that truth. Your Heavenly Father knows you so completely that He has counted the hairs of your head: “Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows,” Luke 12:7.
MATTHEW HENRY: He who feeds His birds will not starve His babes.
