Job 39:27

27 Did you command the eagle's flight, and teach her to build her 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 trumpet he neighs mightily, smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off, catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.

26 "Was it through your know how that the hawk learned to fly, soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?

27 Did you command the eagle's flight, and teach her to build her nest in the heights,

28 Perfectly at home on the high cliff-face, invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?

29 From her perch she searches for prey, spies it at a great distance.