Job 39:6

6 I am the one who gave the donkey the desert as its home; I gave it the desert lands as a place to live.

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

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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 ones grow big and strong in the wild country. Then they leave their homes and do not return.

5 "Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes?

6 I am the one who gave the donkey the desert as its home; I gave it the desert lands as a place to live.

7 The wild donkey laughs at the confusion in the city, and it does not hear the drivers shout.

8 It roams the hills looking for pasture, looking for anything green to eat.