Job 39:27

27 Does the eagle fly up when you say so, to build its nest in the heights?

Job 39:27 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:27

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 ^F16, 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 ^F17; eagles make their nests not in plains, but in high places, especially in cragged rocks, as in ( Job 39:28 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Florida 1.
F17 Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32.

Job 39:27 In-Context

25 At the sound of the shofar it whinnies; as from afar it scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.

26 "Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk soaring, spreading its wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle fly up when you say so, to build its nest in the heights?

28 It lives and spends its nights on the cliffs; a rocky crag is its fortress.

29 From there it spots its prey, its eyes see it far off.