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 , 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 ( 1 Samuel 4:19 ).
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."
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 Psalms 107:34 , 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 Job 39:12 ).
abide--literally, "pass the night."
crib--( Isaiah 1:3 ).
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 ( 1 Samuel 8:15 ).
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 , 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.