Job 39:6

6 I gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat.

Job 39:6 in Other Translations

KJV
6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
ESV
6 to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place?
NLT
6 I have placed it in the wilderness; its home is the wasteland.
MSG
6 I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in, the rolling plains and wide-open places.
CSB
6 I made the wilderness its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.

Job 39:6 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:6

Whose house I have made the wilderness
Appointed that to be his place of residence, as being agreeable to his nature, at a distance from men, and in the less danger of being brought into subjection by them. Such were the deserts of Arabia; where, as Xenophon


FOOTNOTES:

F14 relates, were many of these creatures, and which he represents as very swift: and Leo Africanus F15 says, great numbers of them are found in deserts, and on the borders of deserts; hence said to be used to the wilderness ( Jeremiah 2:24 ) ;

and the barren land his dwellings;
not entirely barren, for then it could not live there; but comparatively, with respect to land that is fruitful: or "salt land" F16; for, as Pliny F17 says, every place where salt is, is barren.


F14 De Expedition. Cyri, l. 1.
F15 Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752.
F16 (hxlm) "salsuginem", Montanus; "salsuginosam terram", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F17 Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 7.

Job 39:6 In-Context

4 Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds; they leave and do not return.
5 “Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes?
6 I gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat.
7 It laughs at the commotion in the town; it does not hear a driver’s shout.
8 It ranges the hills for its pasture and searches for any green thing.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Job 24:5; Psalms 107:34; Jeremiah 2:24
  • 2. Job 30:4
  • 3. Job 30:7; Jeremiah 14:6; Jeremiah 17:6; Hosea 8:9
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