---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Job 39"
description: "CHAPTER 39   :-. 1. Even wild beasts, cut off
from all care of man, are cared for by God at their
seasons of greatest need. Their instinct comes direct fr"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/job/39"
---

CHAPTER 39

.

**1.** Even wild beasts, cut off
from all care of *man,* are cared for by *God* at their
seasons of greatest need. Their instinct comes direct from God and
guides them to help themselves in parturition; the very time when the
herdsman is most anxious for his herds.
**wild goats**—ibex
([Psalms 104:18](../../../kjv/psalms/104/18); [1 Samuel 24:2](../../../kjv/1-samuel/24/2)).
**hinds**—fawns; most timid
and defenseless animals, yet cared for by God.

**2.** They bring forth with ease
and do not need to reckon the months of pregnancy, as the shepherd
does in the case of his flocks.

**3. bow themselves**—in
parturition; bend on their knees ().
**bring forth**—literally,
"cause their young to cleave the womb and break forth."
**sorrows**—their young
ones, the cause of their momentary pains.

**4. are in good liking**—in good
condition, grow up strong.
**with corn**—rather, "in
the field," without man's care.
**return not**—being able
to provide for themselves.

**5. wild ass**—Two different
*Hebrew* words are here used for the same animal, "the ass
of the woods" and "the wild ass." (See on ; [Job 39:1](../../../kjv/job/39/1); [Job 39:1](../../../kjv/job/39/1); and [Job 39:1](../../../kjv/job/39/1)).
**loosed the bands**—given
its liberty to. Man can rob animals of freedom, but not, as God, give
freedom, combined with subordination to fixed laws.

**6. barren**—literally, "salt,"
that is, unfruitful. (So , *Margin*.)

**7. multitude**—rather, "din";
he sets it at defiance, being far away from it in the freedom of the
wilderness.
**driver**—who urges on the
tame ass to work. The wild ass is the symbol of uncontrolled freedom
in the East; even kings have, therefore, added its name to them.

**8. The range**—literally,
"searching," "that which it finds by searching is his
pasture."

**9. unicorn**—PLINY
[*Natural History,* 8.21], mentions such an animal; its figure
is found depicted in the ruins of Persepolis. The *Hebrew reem*
conveys the idea of *loftiness* and *power* (compare *Ramah;*
Indian, *Ram;* Latin, *Roma*). The rhinoceros was perhaps
the original type of the unicorn. The Arab *rim* is a two-horned
animal. Sometimes "unicorn" or *reem* is a mere
poetical symbol or abstraction; but the buffalo is the animal
referred to here, from the contrast to the tame ox, used in ploughing
([Job 39:10](../../../kjv/job/39/10); [Job 39:12](../../../kjv/job/39/12)).
**abide**—literally, "pass
the night."
**crib**— ([Job 39:12](../../../kjv/job/39/12)).

**10. his band**—fastened to the
horns, as its chief strength lies in the head and shoulders.
**after thee**—obedient to
thee; willing to follow, instead of being goaded on *before*
thee.

**11. thy labour**—rustic work.

**12. believe**—trust.
**seed**—produce ().
**into thy barn**—rather,
"gather (the contents of) thy threshing-floor" [MAURER];
the corn threshed on it.

**13.** Rather, "the wing of
the ostrich hen"—literally, "the crying bird"; as
the Arab name for it means "song"; referring to its night
cries ([Job 30:29](../../../kjv/job/30/29); [Micah 1:8](../../../kjv/micah/1/8))
vibrating joyously. "Is it not like the quill and feathers of
*the pious bird*" (the stork)? [UMBREIT].
The *vibrating, quivering wing,* serving for sail and oar at
once, is characteristic of the ostrich in full course. Its white and
black feathers in the wing and tail are like the stork's. But, unlike
that bird, the symbol of parental love in the East, it with seeming
want of natural (pious) affection deserts its young. Both birds are
poetically called by descriptive, instead of their usual appellative,
names.

**14, 15.** Yet (unlike the stork)
she "leaveth," c. Hence called by the Arabs "the
impious bird." However, the fact is, she lays her eggs with
great care and hatches them, as other birds do but in hot countries
the eggs do not need so constant incubation; she therefore often
leaves them and sometimes forgets the place on her return. Moreover,
the outer eggs, intended for food, she feeds to her young; these
eggs, lying separate in the sand, exposed to the sun, gave rise to
the idea of her altogether leaving them. God describes her as she
*seems to man;* implying, though she may seem foolishly to
neglect her young, yet really she is guided by a sure instinct from
God, as much as animals of instincts widely different.

**16.** On a slight noise she often
forsakes her eggs, and returns not, *as if* she were "hardened
towards her young."
**her labour**—in producing
eggs, *is in vain,* (yet) *she has not disquietude* (about
her young), unlike other birds, who, if one egg and another are taken
away, will go on laying till their full number is made up.

**17. wisdom**—such as God gives
to other animals, and to man (). The Arab proverb is, "foolish as an ostrich."
Yet her very seeming want of wisdom is not without wise design of
God, though man cannot see it; just as in the trials of the godly,
which seem so unreasonable to Job, there lies hid a wise design.

**18.** Notwithstanding her
deficiencies, she has distinguishing excellences.
**lifteth . . . herself**—for
running; she cannot mount in the air. GESENIUS
translates: "lashes herself" up to her course by flapping
her wings. The old versions favor *English Version,* and the
parallel "scorneth" answers to her *proudly* "lifting
up herself."

**19.** The allusion to "the
horse" ([Job 39:18](../../../kjv/job/39/18)),
suggests the description of him. Arab poets delight in praising the
horse; yet it is not mentioned in the possessions of Job ([Job 1:3](../../../kjv/job/1/3);
[Job 42:12](../../../kjv/job/42/12)). It seems to have been
at the time chiefly used for war, rather than "domestic
purposes."
**thunder**—poetically for,
"he with arched neck inspires fear as thunder does."
Translate, "majesty" [UMBREIT].
Rather "the trembling, quivering mane," answering to the
"vibrating wing" of the ostrich (see on [Job 42:12](../../../kjv/job/42/12)) [MAURER].
"Mane" in *Greek* also is from a root meaning "fear."
*English Version* is more sublime.

**20. make . . . afraid**—rather,
"canst thou (as I do) make him *spring* as the *locust?*"
So in [Joel 2:4](../../../kjv/joel/2/4), the comparison is
between *locusts* and *war-horses.* The heads of the two
are so similar that the Italians call the locusts *cavaletta,*
"little horse."
**nostrils**—snorting
furiously.

**21. valley**—where the battle is
joined.
**goeth on**—goeth forth
([Numbers 1:3](../../../kjv/numbers/1/3); [Numbers 21:23](../../../kjv/numbers/21/23)).

**23. quiver**—for the arrows,
which they contain, and which are directed "against him."
**glittering spear**—literally,
"glittering of the spear," like "lightning of the
spear" ([Habakkuk 3:11](../../../kjv/habakkuk/3/11)).
**shield**—rather, "lance."

**24. swalloweth**—Fretting with
impatience, he *draws the ground towards him* with his hoof, as
if he would *swallow* it. The parallelism shows this to be the
sense; not as MAURER,
"scours over it."
**neither believeth**—for
joy. Rather, "he will not *stand still,* when the note of
the trumpet (soundeth)."

**25. saith**—poetically applied
to his mettlesome neighing, whereby he shows his love of the battle.
**smelleth**—snuffeth;
discerneth ([Isaiah 11:3](../../../kjv/isaiah/11/3), *Margin*).
**thunder**—thundering
voice.

**26.** The instinct by which some
birds migrate to warmer climes before winter. Rapid flying peculiarly
characterizes the whole hawk genus.

**27. eagle**—It flies highest of
all birds: thence called "the bird of heaven."

**28. abideth**—securely (); it occupies the same abode mostly for life.
**crag**—literally, "tooth"
([1 Samuel 14:5](../../../kjv/1-samuel/14/5), *Margin*).
**strong place**—citadel,
fastness.

**29. seeketh**—is on the lookout
for.
**behold**—The eagle
descries its prey at an astonishing distance, by sight, rather than
smell.

**30.** Quoted partly by Jesus
Christ ([Matthew 24:28](../../../kjv/matthew/24/28)). The food of
young eagles is the blood of victims brought by the parent, when they
are still too feeble to devour flesh.
**slain**—As the vulture
chiefly feeds on carcasses, *it* is included probably in the
eagle genus.

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