Job 39:29

29 From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away.

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.


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 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?
28 It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away.
30 Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it is."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.