Saying
The apple of his eye
A biblical saying: where "The apple of his eye" comes from (Deuteronomy 32:10), what it meant there, and how the everyday phrase compares.
The apple of his eye
Guarded by God as closely as the pupil of an eye.
Deuteronomy 32 is the Song of Moses. Near the end of his life Moses was told to write it and teach it to Israel, "that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel" (Deuteronomy 31:19), and he spoke it "in the ears of all the assembly of Israel" (Deuteronomy 31:30). It sings of God's faithfulness and Israel's unfaithfulness.
Early in the song Moses looks back to the wilderness years. Israel was the Lord's own portion, "the lot of his inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:9). God "found him in a desert land, And in the waste howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he cared for him, He kept him as the apple of his eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10). Then comes a second picture: like an eagle over her young, he spread his wings and carried them (Deuteronomy 32:11).
In older English the apple of the eye was the pupil, the dark opening at the center of the eye (sometimes the whole eyeball). The Hebrew word here, ishon, is usually explained as a diminutive of ish, "man" — the "little man" of the eye, from the tiny reflection you see of yourself in someone else's pupil. Psalms 17:8 has a fuller form, ishon bat-ayin, "the little man, the daughter of the eye"; Zechariah 2:8 uses a different word, bavah (in the verse, bavat), for the pupil or eyeball.
The picture is one of instinctive protection. Nothing is guarded as quickly as the eye: the lid shuts and the hand comes up before we have time to think. That is how God kept Israel in the wilderness — close, watchful and quick. So David prays, "Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me under the shadow of thy wings" (Psalms 17:8), and through Zechariah the Lord warns the nations that "he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zechariah 2:8). Proverbs 7:2 turns the picture round: a son is to guard his father's teaching that carefully — "my law as the apple of thine eye."
"The apple of my eye" now means someone dearly loved — often a child or grandchild, the one a parent or grandparent delights in most. Many who say it do not know that the apple is the pupil.
The modern sense is true to Scripture as far as it goes: Israel was precious to God. But the biblical picture is less about fondness than about protection. To be kept "as the apple of his eye" is to be guarded as instinctively as we guard our own eyes, and to harm God's people is to strike at his eye (Zechariah 2:8). The idiom fits the verses best when it carries that note of watchful, protective care, and not only affection.
apple (of the eye)
the pupil; usually explained as "little man" of the eye (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalms 17:8; Proverbs 7:2)
apple of the eye
the fuller form in Psalms 17:8: "the little man, the daughter of the eye"
apple (of his eye)
a different word (dictionary form bavah) for the pupil or eyeball, used only in Zechariah 2:8 (2:12 in Hebrew Bibles)
Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
David's prayer borrows Moses' picture and joins it to the shelter of God's wings.
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: After glory hath he sent me unto the nations which plundered you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
To touch God's people is to touch "the apple of his eye."
Keep my commandments and live; And my law as the apple of thine eye.
The same care turned the other way: a father's teaching is to be guarded like an eye.
Their heart cried unto the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; Give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
Here the "apple of thine eye" is the eye itself, told not to cease weeping; the Hebrew is bat-ayin, "daughter of the eye."
He will cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler.
The companion picture from Deuteronomy 32:11: refuge under God's wings.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Jesus uses the same kind of picture — a hen gathering her chickens — over Jerusalem.