Job 39:29

29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.

Job 39:29 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:29

From thence she seeketh the prey
From the high rock; from whence she can look down into valleys, and even into the sea; and spy what is for her purpose, and descend and seize upon them; as lambs, fawns, geese, shellfish though they may lie in the most hidden and secret places. Wherefore in the original text it is, "she diggeth the prey or food" ^F19; as treasure hid in secret is dug or diligently searched for; and for which she is qualified by the sharpness of her sight, as follows:

[and] her eyes behold afar off;
from the high rocks and higher clouds, even from the high sky, as Aelianus ^F20 expresses it; and who observes that she is the most sharp sighted of all birds; and so, Homer ^F21 says, some affirm.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (lka rpx) "fodit escam"; Montanus, Mercerus.
F20 De Animal. l. 2. c. 26. & l. 1. c. 42. Aristot. & Plin. ut supra. (Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 3.)
F21 Iliad. 17. v. 674, 675. so Diodor. Sic. l. 3. p. 145.

Job 39:29 In-Context

27 And does the eagle rise at thy command, and the vulture remain sitting over his nest,

28 on a crag of a rock, and in a secret ?

29 Thence he seeks food, his eyes observe from far.

30 And his young ones roll themselves in blood, and wherever the carcasses may be, immediately they are found.

31 And the Lord God answered Job, and said,