Job 39:20

20 Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.

Job 39:20 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:20

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?
&c.] Which is frightened at every noise, and at any approach of men; but not so the horse; or canst thou move him, or cause him to skip and jump, or rather leap like a grasshopper? that is, hast thou given, or canst thou give him the faculty of leaping over hedges and ditches, for which the horse is famous? so Neptune's war horses are said F17 to be (euskarymoi) , good leapers;

the glory of his nostrils [is] terrible:
which may be understood of his sneezing, snorting, pawing, and neighing, when his nostrils are broad, spread, and enlarged; and especially when enraged and in battle, when he foams and fumes, and his breath comes out of his nostrils like smoke {r}, and is very terrible.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 Homeri Iliad. 13. v. 31.
F18 "Iguescunt patulae nares". Claudian. in 4. Consul. Honor.

Job 39:20 In-Context

18 When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 "Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?
20 Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.
21 It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.
22 It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.