Job 39:21
Ver. 21. He paweth in the valley,.... Where armies are usually pitched and set in battle army, and especially the cavalry, for which the valley is most convenient; and here the horse is impatient of engaging, cannot stand still, but rises up with his fore feet and paws and prances, and, as the word signifies, digs the earth and makes it hollow, by a continual striking upon it; so generally horses are commonly described in this manner {s};and rejoiceth in [his] strength; of which he is sensible, and glories in it; marches to the battle with pride and stateliness, defying, as it were, the enemy, and as if sure of victory, of which he has knowledge when obtained; for Lactantius says {t} of horses, when conquerors they exult, when conquered they grieve; it has its name in the Hebrew language from rejoicing {u};he goeth on to meet the armed men; without any fear or dread of them, as follows.{s} "Cavatque tellurem". Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 87. {t} Institut. l. 3. c. 8. {u} vwv "gavisus est". Vid. Buxtorf. in voce owo. Job 39:22Ver. 22. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted,.... At those things which cause fear and fright to men; as arms, though ever so terrible, and armies, though never so numerous;neither turneth he back from the sword; the naked sword, when it is drawn against him, and ready to be thrust into him; the horse being so bold and courageous was with the Egyptians a symbol of courage and boldness {v}.{v} Clement. Alex. Stromat. l. 5. p. 567. Job 39:23Ver. 23. The quiver rattleth against him,.... The quiver is what arrows are put into and carried in, and seems here to be put for arrows, which being shot by the enemy come whizzing about him, but do not intimidate him; unless this is to be understood of arrows rattling in the quiver when carried by the rider "upon him", so some render the last word; and thus Homer {w} and Virgil {x} speak of the rattling quiver and sounding arrows in it, as carried on the back or shoulder; but the first sense seems best, in which another poet uses it {y};the glittering spear and the shield; the lance or javelin, as Mr. Broughton renders it, and others; that is, he does not turn back from these, nor is he frightened at them when they are pointed to him or flung at him; so Aelianus {z} speaks of the Persians training their horses and getting them used to noises, that in battle they might not be frightened at the clashing of arms, of swords and shields against each other; in like manner as our war horses are trained, not to start at the firing of a gun, or the explosion of a cannon.{w} Iliad. 1. v. 4. {x} "Pharetramqne sonantem". Aeneid. 9. v. 666. {y} "----audito sonitu per inane pharetrae". Ovid. Metamorph. l. 6. v. 230. {z} De Animal. l. 16. c. 25. Job 39:24Ver. 24. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage,.... Being so eager for the battle, and so full of fierceness and rage, he bounds the plain with such swiftness that he seems rather to swallow up the ground than to run upon it;neither believeth he that [it is] the sound of the trumpet; for joy at hearing it; or he will not trust to his ears, but will see with his eyes whether the battle is ready, and therefore pushes forward. Mr. Broughton and others read it, "he will not stand still at the noise of the trumpet"; and the word signifies firm and stable, as well as to believe; when he hears the trumpet sound, the alarm of war, as a preparation for the battle, he knows not how to {a} stand; there is scarce any holding him in, but he rushes into the battle at once, Jer 8:6.{a} "Stare loco nescit". Virgil. Georgic. l. 3. v. 84. "Ut fremit acer equus", &c. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 3. Fab. 10. v. 704. Job 39:25Ver. 25. He saith among the trumpets, ha, ha,.... As pleased with the sound of them, rejoicing thereat, and which he signifies by neighing;and he smelleth the battle afar off; which respects not so much the distance of place as of time; he perceives beforehand that it is near, by the preparations making for it, and particularly by what follows; so Pliny {b} says of horses, they presage a fight. The thunder of the captains, and the shouting; they understand an engagement is just about to start by the loud and thundering voice of the captains, exhorting and spiralling up their men, and giving them the word of command; and by the clamorous shout of the soldiers echoing to the speech of their captains; and which are given forth upon an onset, both to animate one another, and intimidate the enemy. Bootius {c} observes, that Virgil {d} and Oppianus {e} say most of the same things in praise of the horse which are here said, and seem to have taken them from hence; and some {f} give the horse the preference to the lion, which, when it departs from a fight, never returns, whereas the horse will. This is an emblem both of good men, Zec 10:3; and of bad men, Jer 8:6.{b} Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 42. {c} Animadvers. Sacr. l. 3. c. 6. s. 1. {d} Georgic. l. 3. {e} Cyneget. l. 1. {f} Horus Aegypt. apud Steeb. Coelum Sephirot. Heb. c. 6. s. 1. p. 106. Job 39:26Ver. 26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,.... With so much swiftness, steadiness, and constancy, until she has seized her prey. The Vulgate Latin version and some others read, "does she become feathered", or "begin to have feathers?" and so Bochart: either when first fledged; or when, as it is said {d} she casts her old feathers and gets new ones, and this every year. Now neither her flight nor her feathers, whether at one time or the other, are owing to men, but to the Lord, who gives both;[and] stretch her wings towards the south? Being a bird of passage, she moves from colder climates towards the winter, and steers her course to the south towards warmer ones {e}; which she does by an instinct in nature, put into her by the Lord, and not through the instruction of man. Or, as some say, casting off her old feathers, she flies towards the south for warmth; and that her feathers may be cherished with the heat, and grow the sooner and better. Hence it is, perhaps, as Aelianus reports {f}, that this bird was by the Egyptians consecrated to Apollo or the sun; it being able to look upon the rays of it wistly, constantly, and easily, without being hurt thereby. Porphyry {g} says, that this bird is not only acceptable to the sun; but has divinity in it, according to the Egyptians; and is no other than Osiris, or the sun represented by the image of it {h}. Strabo {i} speaks of a city of the hawks, where this creature is worshipped. It has its name in Greek from the sacredness of it; and according to Hesiod {k}, is very swift, and has large wings. It is called wkupterov, swift in flying, by Manetho {l}; and by Homer, wkistov petehnwn, the swiftest of fowls {m}. It has its name from hun, to "fly", as Kimchi observes {n}. Cyril of Jerusalem, on the authority of the Greek version, affirms {o}, that by a divine instinct or order, the hawk, stretching out its wings, stands in the midst of the air unmoved, looking towards the south. All accounts show it to be a bird that loves warmth, which is the reason of the expression in the text.{d} Aelian. de Animal. l. 12. c. 4. {e} Ibid. l. 2. c. 43. Plin. l. 10. c. 8. {f} De Animal. l. 7. c. 9. & l. 10. c. 14. {g} De Abstinentia, l. 4. s. 9. {h} Kircher. Prodrom. Copt. p. 232. {i} Geograph. l. 17. p. 562. {k} Opera & Dies, l. 1. v. 208. {l} Apotelesm. l. 5. v. 176. {m} Iliad. 15. v. 238. Odyss 13. v. 87. {n} Sepher Shorash. rad. hun. {o} Cateches. 9. s. 6. Job 39:27Ver. 27. Doth the eagle mount up at thy command,.... No; but by an instinct which God has placed in it, and a capacity he has given it above all other birds. They take a circuit in their flight, and bend about before they soar aloft: but the eagle steers its course directly upwards towards heaven, till out of sight; and, as Apuleius says {p}, up to the clouds, where it rains and snows, and beyond which there is no place for thunder and lightning;and make her nest on high? so the philosopher says {q}; eagles make their nests not in plains, but in high places, especially in cragged rocks, as in Job 39:28.{p} Florida 1. {q} Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32. Job 39:28Ver. 28. She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. Where she and her young are safe: so Pliny {r} says, eagles make their nests in rocks, even in the precipices of them, as the philosopher quoted in the preceding verse; and here on the tooth, edge, or precipice of the rock, which is inaccessible, and so like a strong fortified place.{r} Nat. Hist. l. 10. 3. Job 39:29Ver. 29. From thence she seeketh the prey,.... From the high rock; from whence she can look down into valleys, and even into the sea; and spy what is for her purpose, and descend and seize upon them; as lambs, fawns, geese, shellfish, &c. though they may lie in the most hidden and secret places. Wherefore in the original text it is, "she diggeth the prey or food" {s}; as treasure hid in secret is dug or diligently searched for; and for which she is qualified by the sharpness of her sight, as follows:[and] her eyes behold afar off; from the high rocks and higher clouds, even from the high sky, as Aelianus {t} expresses it; and who observes that she is the most sharp sighted of all birds; and so, Homer {u} says, some affirm.{s} lka rpx "fodit escam"; Montanus, Mercerus. {t} De Animal. l. 2. c. 26. & l. 1. c. 42. Aristot. & Plin. ut supra. (Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 3.) {u} Iliad. 17. v. 674, 675. so Diodor. Sic. l. 3. p. 145. Job 39:30Ver. 30. Her young ones also suck up blood,.... As well as herself, being brought up to it by her. The eagle cares not for water, but drinks the blood of her prey; and so her young ones after her, as naturalists report {w}. And Aelianus says {x} the same of the hawk, that it eats no seeds, but devours flesh and drinks blood, and nourishes her young ones with the same.And where the slain are, there is she; where there has been a battle, and carcasses left on the field, the eagles will gather to them. This is particularly true of that kind of eagles called vulture eagles, as Aristotle {y} and Pliny {z} observe; see Mt 24:28. Now since Job was so ignorant of the nature of these creatures, and incapable of governing and directing them; and what they had of any excellency were of God, and not of him, nor of any man; how unfit must he be to dispute with God, and contend with him about his works of providence? which to convince him of was the design of this discourse about the creatures; and which had its intended effect, as appears in the next chapter.{w} Aristot. de Animal. l. 8. c. 3. 18. Aelianus, l. 2. c. 26. {x} Ib. l. 10. c. 14. {y} Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32. {z} Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 3.
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