With Wings as Eagles

     Isaiah 40 verse 31 is a cornerstone and a bit of a watershed Bible verse for Christians both at the same time.  It seems to be "the go to"  scripture for waiting on the Lord. It has a watershed of figurative language that preachers can preach for pew hours on. (pew hours are longer that normal hours. They are on par with desk hours in the classroom.) Anyway its a great scripture. But I have heard the stories related to this scripture of eagles and how they grow new feathers, repeated several times from the pulpit.
The story goes something like this. An eagle when he is older will find a rock and hide in the rock and go through a molting stage. Now during this molting stage the eagle will pull out its talons and wear down its beak. All its feathers will fall out and it will not eat until it gets its new wings and talons. I have even heard of other eagles dropping food to the bird. Then the preacher relates how we can go through times like these and he reads to us  Isaiah 40:31. That is a great story, if it were true.
Eagles and some birds do go through a molting stage. For the eagle it can go through many such times. This part is true. (youtube ) But it never loses all its feathers at once and never, ever pulls out its talons. The talon and beak are made of the same thing our fingernails are made from. They continually grow. They don't need to be pulled out.
     Why is this important?  Because bad translations can lead to bad language from the pulpit. This in turn leads to misunderstandings from those we are trying to reach. Sometimes simply checking ones sources can help illuminate nonfactual  and untruths from our gospel story. A wise man once said "If they are going to stumble (unsaved people) let it be over the Word." I wouldn't want someone who knew better wasting those pew hours thinking about clawless eagles instead of the point of the message. We don't need perfection but correctness might be nice.
     For Isaiah 40:31 The confusion comes in on the word  …wñlSoÅy. In Hebrew this means "to ascend, bring up". It is a verb and in Hebrew its form is called a hiphael (some hifael). In another form of the same verb it is called a qal. It can mean "sprout up" as grass. It is this application of the verb that we find problems. The qal  people translate this 'sprout up with wings as eagle" meaning like eagles sprout new wings. Makes sense. Eagles do molt at some point  as I have said. And there probably is little harm done except you have guys adding insult to injury with their mistranslations of what eagles actually do. If we read what the author wrote using the imperfect Hiphael then it will simply read, "to ascend as wings of eagles..."  implication  back to the first part of the verse and the last part of the verse all together meaning "strength". In other words reading the verse in context.  Is. 40:31- They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength (renew is correct here) they will ascend like wings of eagles, they will run and not get weary (lose strength) they walk and not faint (lose strength). It seems clear to me that it is 'ascend'. But a wise rabbi said there are 70 interpretations for every verse of the Bible.
For more Research: http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/eaglerebirth.asp