Job 39:27

27 Does an eagle wait for your command to build its nest high in the mountains?

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 each blast of the trumpet they snort; they can smell a battle before they get near, and they hear the officers shouting commands.

26 Does a hawk learn from you how to fly when it spreads its wings toward the south?

27 Does an eagle wait for your command to build its nest high in the mountains?

28 It makes its home on the highest rocks and makes the sharp peaks its fortress.

29 From there it watches near and far for something to kill and eat.