Nest

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Hebrew Ken . The Kenite is represented as "putting his 'nest' ( Ken , playing on the name) in a rock" ( Numbers 24:21-22). (See Kenite .) So Edom,  Obadiah 1:3-4; "thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock ... though thou set thy nest among the stars" (in thy ambitious pride regarding thy lofty dwelling as raised beyond the reach of injury; type of antichrist:  Isaiah 14:13;  Daniel 8:10;  Daniel 11:37), i.e. Petra, in the Wady Musa , Edom's capital cut in the rocks. So Moab ( Jeremiah 48:28), "like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth," i.e. the blue rock dove which tenants the clefts and caves on the wall-like eastern sides of the Dead Sea, also on the western sides; abundant at Mar Saba, where the monks are employed in feeding them.

So the bride in the clefts of Christ, the smitten Rock ( Song of Solomon 2:14;  Psalms 27:5;  Isaiah 33:16). Contrast the clefts in which the proud sinner like Edom hides ( Jeremiah 49:16). The compartments in Noah's ark are literally "nests" or berths ( Genesis 6:14). (See Bird on  Psalms 84:3.) In  Isaiah 10:14 Assyria boasts, "my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people," implying the ease with which he pillaged the most precious treasures, not his own, as a boy robbing a helpless bard's nest; "none moved the wing or peeped (chirped)" as a parent bird does when its young are stolen; none dare resist me even with a word.

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Numbers 24:21 (a) These people lived in a stronghold in the mountains and thought that they were secure. As the eagle builds where she thinks she is perfectly safe on the high cliff, so these people planned on safety from their situation. They did not know they were to be destroyed eventually, their stronghold would be conquered and they themselves would be annihilated. (See  Jeremiah 49:16;  Habakkuk 2:9).

 Deuteronomy 32:11 (a) This is a description of the home life as it existed in Egypt among the Israelites and out of which they were emptied at the Passover. They had to leave their dwelling place and take the long journey through the wilderness. It is also a description of the personal life in the home, in the business, or in the church, out of which the Lord sometimes thrusts His children in order that they learn to know His power, and trust His love.

 Job 29:18 (a) Job uses this term to describe his own lovely, comfortable home life before he was attacked by Satan.

 Isaiah 10:14 (a) The King of Assyria used this expression to describe his palace and his city which were filled with great riches and treasures which he had obtained by war.

 Jeremiah 48:28 (a) This type represents the believer who finds his home, his life, and all his affairs wholly resting in the Lord Jesus Christ the Rock of Ages.

 Jeremiah 49:16 (a) In this way the Lord describes the sinner who seeks to make for himself a comfortable place in which to live, but who omits GOD from his life. (See also  Obadiah 1:4).

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Κατασκήνωσις (Strong'S #2682 — Noun Neuter — kataskenosis — kat-as-kay'-no-sis )

properly "an encamping, taking up one's quarters," then, "a lodging, abode" (kata, "down over," skene, "a tent"), is used of birds' "nest" in  Matthew 8:20;  Luke 9:58 . In the Sept.,  1—Chronicles 28:2 , "the building;"  Ezekiel 37:27 , "(My) tabernacle." The word nossia, signifying "a brood,"  Luke 13:34 , used in the Sept. to denote a "nest," e.g., in  Deuteronomy 22:6;  32:11 , signifies the actual receptacle built by birds in which to lay their eggs (having special reference to the prospective brood); but the word kataskenosis, used by the Lord, denotes "a resting or roosting place." This lends force to His comparison. Not only was He without a home, He had even a lodging place (cp. kataskenoo, "to lodge," e.g.,  Matthew 13:32;  Acts 2:26 , RV marg., "shall tabernacle;" see Lodge

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

NEST. —Orientals, while often indifferent to the study and explanation of natural processes, have always been attracted by the provisions of instinct for the preservation of animal life. They observed the home-like motive of rest and safety in the selection and construction of birds’ nests ( Job 29:18,  Psalms 84:3;  Psalms 104:17,  Jeremiah 48:28;  Jeremiah 49:16). In the Gospels the word translation ‘nest’ (κατασκήνωσις) means generally the place of night shelter for birds ( Matthew 8:20), or where they alight in search of food during the day ( Matthew 13:31-32). By contrasting His own with the more fortunate condition of the birds, Christ intimates that whoever, like the scribe, would follow Him to the uttermost, may for His sake have to endure loneliness, misunderstanding, and rejection. The reference to the mustard seed, which in its wild state produces a shrub reaching to the seat of a horse’s saddle, indicates that power of rapid expansion inherent in Christ’s Kingdom which has often surprised both its friends and its foes.

G. M. Mackie.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. t.) To put into a nest; to form a nest for.

(2): ( n.) Hence: the place in which the eggs of other animals, as insects, turtles, etc., are laid and hatched; a snug place in which young animals are reared.

(3): ( v. i.) To build and occupy a nest.

(4): ( n.) A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.

(5): ( n.) A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.

(6): ( n.) An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.

(7): ( n.) A snug, comfortable, or cozy residence or situation; a retreat, or place of habitual resort; hence, those who occupy a nest, frequent a haunt, or are associated in the same pursuit; as, a nest of traitors; a nest of bugs.

(8): ( n.) The bed or receptacle prepared by a fowl for holding her eggs and for hatching and rearing her young.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

NEST ( qçn ). Used literally of birds’ nests (  Deuteronomy 22:6;   Deuteronomy 32:11 ,   Job 39:27 ,   Psalms 84:3;   Psalms 104:17 ,   Proverbs 27:8 ,   Isaiah 16:2 ); metaphorically for a lofty fortress (  Numbers 24:21 ,   Jeremiah 49:16 ,   Obadiah 1:4 ,   Habakkuk 2:9 ); Job refers to his lost home as a nest (  Job 29:18 ); in   Genesis 6:14 the ‘ rooms ’ of the ark are (see mg.) literally ‘nests’ ( qinnîm ). In   Matthew 8:20 ,   Luke 9:58 our Lord contrasts His wandering, homeless life with that of the birds which have their ‘nests’ ( kataskçnôseis , RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘lodging-places’).

E. W. G. Masterman.

King James Dictionary

NEST, n.

1. The place or bed formed or used by a bird for incubation or the mansion of her young, until they are able to fly. The word is used also for the bed in which certain insects deposit their eggs. 2. Any place where irrational animals are produced. 3. An abode a place of residence a receptacle of numbers, or the collection itself usually in an sense as a nest of rogues. 4. A warm close place of abode generally in contempt. 5. A number of boxes, cases or the like, inserted in each other.

NEST, To build and occupy a nest.

The king of birds nested with its leaves.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 24:21 Job 29:18 Habakkuk 2:9 Proverbs 27:8 Matthew 8:20 Luke 9:58

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( קֵן Ken, from קָנִן , to build; Κατασκήνωσις , lit. a Tent-Dwelling). The law in  Deuteronomy 22:6-7 directs that if one falls in with a bird's-nest with eggs or young, he shall allow the dam to escape, and not take her as well as the nest. The reason Maimonides (Moreh Nebuchim) gives for this is, "The eggs on which the dam is sitting, or the young ones which have need of her, are not, in general, permitted to be eaten; and when the dam is allowed to escape she is not distressed by seeing her young ones carried off. It thus frequently happens that all are untouched, because that which might be taken may not be lawfully eaten." He adds, "If the law, then, be thus careful to prevent birds and beasts (for he had been alluding to the instances of this humanity of the law) from suffering pain and grief, how much more mankind!" (See Law Of Moses).

The ingenuity with which a bird's-nest is constructed, its perfect adaptation to its intended purpose, its compactness, its hollow form, its warmth, the different materials of which it is composed, its lining, the industry and perseverance with which it is collected and put together, the art with which it is concealed-all these and other points render it impossible to look on the more elaborate specimens of birds'-nests without strong admiration. It is true there are very numerous gradations in the perfection of what we may call art in these structures — from the shallow cavity scratched in the ground by the partridge, to the purse of the oriole, exquisitely woven of horse-hair, and suspended from a twig, or the tiny cup of the humming-bird compactly felted of silk-cotton, and ornamented with lichens; but this endless variety is only the more admirable, because we see that each form is perfect in its kind, and answers its own purpose better than any other could have done. Various as are the materials selected by birds for the formation of their nests, they are generally chosen for one prominent quality, namely, the warmth of the young ( Job 29:18).

The eagle is remarkable for the jealousy with which its domestic economy is removed far from human intrusion. Jehovah alludes to this in his contest with his servant Job ( Job 39:27-28): "Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place: from thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off." The loftiness of the eagle's nest was proverbial, it was "among the stars" ( Obadiah 1:4); and "to make his nest as high as the eagle" was a phrase by which the prophets reproved the pride and ambition of man ( Jeremiah 49:16;  Habakkuk 2:9). (See Eagle).

Another bird remarkable for the inaccessible localities in which it incubates is the rock-dove. (See Dove).

Clefts in lofty precipices, deep holes in beetling cliffs, and shelves in dark caverns, are chosen by this bird. The narrow passes between towering rocks that cleave the elevated region on both sides of the Dead Sea are perforated with clefts and caves, which are numerously tenanted by blue rock-doves. The prophet Jeremiah takes occasion from this derisively to exhort Moab, in the prospect of his desolation by the Chaldaean king, to imitate the rock-dove: "O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth" ( Jeremiah 48:28). It was doubtless the resemblance in habit between the rock-dwelling inhabitants of Idumsea and the rock-dove, both of whom were probably full in view from the summit of Pisgah, that suggested the metaphor which Balaam used of the Kenite, "Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock" ( Numbers 24:21). (See Kenite).

The gallinacae usually lay their eggs in great numbers, often in a nest carelessly made on the ground, and with very little precaution against accidents or interferences from others of the same species. Hence they frequently fail in incubation, or even desert their nest. This seems to be the point of the allusion of the prophet Jeremiah: "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool" ( Jeremiah 17:11). Such a nest we may suppose to have been in the mind of the prophet Isaiah, in the self-gratulatory soliloquy which he puts into the mouth of the conquering king of Assyria: "And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped [piped]" ( Isaiah 10:14). A nest On The Ground, containing Many Eggs, from which the chicks emerge Active and Fledged, and in which they can utter their feeble Piping, is the figure here, and suits some gallinaceous species. Most birds, however, resort to trees for the fabrication of their nests; and in Palestine the thick foliage of the cedars would afford peculiar advantages of shelter and concealment. The dominion exercised over the surrounding nations by the great empire of Assyria is symbolized by Ezekiel under the figure of a lofty and far-spreading cedar in Lebanon, in whose boughs all the fowls of the heaven made their nests ( Ezekiel 31:3-6), and a like comparison indicated to Nebuchadnezzar his royal power ( Daniel 4:21). Jeremiah apostrophizes the inhabitants of Lebanon, as "making their nests in the cedars" ( Jeremiah 22:23); and in the beautiful picture of nature in Psalms 104, the cedars of Lebanon which God hath planted are brought before us as the place "where the birds make their nests;" while "as for the stork, the ir-trees are her house" ( Psalms 104:17); perhaps the flat summits of old trees, a more exposed situation than in the cedar forest. (See Stork).

The propensity of the swallow to affix its nest to human edifices. and of the sparrow to bring up its young in the haunts of men, is elegantly glanced at by the Psalmist, when he contrasts their familiarity with his own exile from the sanctuary ( Psalms 84:2-3). (See Bird).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

( קן , ḳēn  ; νεοσσιά , neossiá , nossiá  ; in the New Testament κατασκήνωσις , kataskḗnōsis  ; Latin nidus ): A receptacle prepared by a bird for receiving its eggs and young. Nests differ with species. Eagles use a large heap of coarse sticks and twigs on the cleft of a mountain (  Job 39:27 ff;   Jeremiah 49:16;  Obadiah 1:4 ); hawks prefer trees; vultures, hollow trees or the earth; ravens, big trees; doves and pigeons, trees or rocky crevices ( Jeremiah 48:28 ); hoopoes, hollow trees; swallows, mud nests under a roof, on cliffs or deserted temples; owls, hollow trees, dark places in ruins or sand burrows (on the ḳippōz of  Isaiah 34:15 see Owl ); cranes, storks and herons, either trees ( Psalm 104:17 ) or rushes beside water (storks often choose housetops, as well).

Each nest so follows the building laws of its owner's species that any expert ornithologist can tell from a nest which bird builded it. Early in incubation a bird deserts a nest readily because it hopes to build another in a place not so easily discoverable and where it can deposit more eggs. When the young have progressed until their quickening is perceptible through the thin shells pressed against the breast of the mother, she develops a boldness called by scientists the "brooding fever." In this state the wildest of birds frequently will suffer your touch before deserting the nest. Especially is this the case if the young are just on the point of emerging. The first Biblical reference to the nest of a bird will be found in Balaam's fourth prophecy in  Numbers 24:21 : "And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable and said, Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thy nest is set in the rock." Here Balaam was thinking of the nest of an eagle, hawk or vulture, placed on solid rock among impregnable crags of mountain tops. The next reference is among the laws for personal conduct in   Deuteronomy 22:6 : "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young." Beyond question this is the earliest law on record for the protection of a brooding bird. It is probable that it was made permissible to take the young, as the law demanded their use, at least in the case of pigeons and doves, for sacrifice. In   Job 29:18 , Job cries,

"Then I said, I shall die in my nest,

And I shall multiply my days as the sand:"

that is, he hoped in his days of prosperity to die in the home he had builded for his wife and children. In  Psalm 84:3 David sings,

"Yea, the sparrow hath found her a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,

Even thine altars, O Yahweh of hosts,

My King, and my God."

These lines are rich and ripe with meaning, for in those days all the world protected a temple nest, even to the infliction of the death penalty on anyone interfering with it. This was because the bird was supposed to be claiming the protection of the gods. Hebrew, Arab and Egyptian guarded all nests on places of worship. Pagan Rome executed the shoemaker who killed a raven that built on a temple, and Athens took the same revenge on the man who destroyed the nest of a swallow. Isaiah compared the destruction of Assyria to the robbing of a bird's nest: "And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathereth eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped" ( Isaiah 10:14; compare  Isaiah 16:2 ). Matthew quotes Jesus as having said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" ( Matthew 8:20 =   Luke 9:58 ).