Job 39:27

27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest on high?^[a]

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 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

Job 39:27 In-Context

25 When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. He smells the battle from a distance; he hears the officers' shouts and the battle cry.

26 Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread its wings to the south?

27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest on high?

28 It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on a rocky crag.

29 From there it searches for prey; its eyes penetrate the distance.

Footnotes

• [a]. Jr 49:16; Ob 4