Job 39:27

27 Is it by your order that the eagle flies high and makes its nest on 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 As often as the horn sounds, the horse says, 'Aha!' and it smells the battle far away-- the thundering [orders] of the captains and the battle cries.

26 "Does your understanding make a bird of prey fly and spread its wings toward the south?

27 Is it by your order that the eagle flies high and makes its nest on the heights?

28 It perches for the night on a cliff. Its fortress is on a jagged peak.

29 From there it seeks food, and its eyes see it from far away.