Job 39:29

29 Thence he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it afar off.

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 his nest on high?
28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 Thence he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it afar off.
30 His young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is he."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the 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.