42:6. The Lord answers Job out of the Storm We are now to witness the last act of the drama. And to understand it we have to go back to the starting-point and recall the idea of the Poem. This idea is expressed in the question, _Doth Job serve God for nought_? Or, as otherwise put, the idea is, _Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_canst thou mark_ Rather, DOST thou. The goats of the rock are the mountain goats, a species of chamois.... [ Continue Reading ]
Job 39:1-4. The goats of the rock and the hinds.... [ Continue Reading ]
Job 38:39 Ch. Job 39:30. The manifoldness of the Divine Mind as displayed in the world of animal life The instances chosen are the lion and the raven (Job 38:39); the wild goats and the hinds (ch. Job 39:1-4); the wild ass (Job 38:5; the wild ox (Job 38:9); the ostrich (Job 38:13); the war horse (J... [ Continue Reading ]
_canst thou number_ Rather, DOST thou. The "months that they fulfil" is the time they go with young. The words "knowest thou", "dost thou mark", and the like, though no doubt referring partly to man's ignorance of the habits of these remote and timid creatures, carry also the question, Is it Job who... [ Continue Reading ]
_cast out their sorrows_ That is, their _pains_; with the birth of their young they are rid of their pains also. Or "their pains" may mean "their young," by a figure common in all poetry.... [ Continue Reading ]
_in good liking_ i. e. in good condition, strong. _grow up with corn_ Rather, THEY GROW UP IN THE OPEN FIELD. These shy, solitary creatures, inhabiting the rocks, are without the care and help in bearing their young which domesticated creatures enjoy; yet their bearing is light and speedy; their y... [ Continue Reading ]
The wild ass. Who gave the wild ass his freedom and his indomitable love of liberty who scorns the noise of cities and laughs at the shouts of the driver, which his tame brother obeys? The point of the questions lies not only in the striking peculiarities of the beautiful creature itself, but in the... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, He scorneth the tumult of the city, And heareth not the shoutings of the driver. The wild ass is frequently referred to in the poetry of the Arabs, who were passionately fond of hunting it. Prof. Ahlwardt has collected from his unequalled reading in the Poets a list of statements... [ Continue Reading ]
_will the unicorn_ Rather, THE WILD OX (Heb. _reém_, or, _rém_). From the allusions to this creature in Scripture two things may be inferred with some certainty, (1) that the animal had _two_horns: Deuteronomy 33:17 "his horns are like the horns of an unicorn"; comp. Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8 (whe... [ Continue Reading ]
The Wild ox.... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse reads, The wing of the ostrich beats joyously, Is it a kindly pinion and feather? The word rendered _ostrich_means lit. _crying_or _wailing_, that is, the cryer or wailer; the female ostrich is probably meant, see on ch. Job 30:29. The word "kindly," lit. _pious_, is the name given to t... [ Continue Reading ]
The ostrich.... [ Continue Reading ]
_may break them_ lit. _trample them_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_she is hardened against_ Or, SHE TREATETH HARDLY. _her young ones_ The words refer here to her eggs, from which the young come forth, not to the young brood as the second clause explains. _in vain without fear_ The meaning is that she is without fear, has no apprehension of danger, and consequent... [ Continue Reading ]
_God hath deprived her of wisdom_ The Arabs have a proverb, "more stupid than an ostrich." A poet suggests the reason of this charge of stupidity, Like a bird that abandons her eggs in the desert, And covers the eggs of another with her wings. (Meidani, _Prov_. i. 405).... [ Continue Reading ]
_lifteth up herself on high_ That is, in flight. The flying of the ostrich is properly a very swift running, in which she is helped by her outspread wings and tail. "Its speed has been calculated at twenty-six miles an hour by Dr Livingstone, and yet the South African ostrich is smaller than the nor... [ Continue Reading ]
The verbs are better put in the present. 19. Dost thou give strength to the horse? Dost thou clothe his neck with trembling? 20. Dost thou make him leap like the locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible. 19. The word "trembling" hardly refers to the mane alone, but rather describes the qui... [ Continue Reading ]
The war horse.... [ Continue Reading ]
The comparison of the horse to the locust is not uncommon, Joel 2:4; Revelation 9:7. The picture of the horse is taken at the moment immediately preceding the onset, and thus his "bounding" and "snorting" are brought into connexion.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the armed men_ lit. _the weapons_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_from the sword_ lit. _because of_, or, _before_the sword.... [ Continue Reading ]
_rattleth against him_ Rather perhaps, UPON him. The quiver is that of his rider, the clang of which excites him. _the shield_ Rather, THE JAVELIN, or, LANCE. The Poet does not seek to describe the actual conflict; it is a picture of the horse that he gives, and the moment before the conflict is tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_neither believeth he_ That is, most probably, he hardly trusts his ears for gladness.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he saith among the trumpets_ Rather, AS OFT AS THE TRUMPET SOUNDETH HE SAITH, HA, HA! The "thunder" of the captains is the roar of command; and the "shouting" is the battle-cry of the soldiery. Has Job created this wonder of beauty and fierceness and endowed him with his extraordinary qualities, w... [ Continue Reading ]
The hawk. _her wings toward the south_ The allusion is to the migration of the bird southward when the cold season of the year begins. Is it Job's wisdom that directs her flight to the south?... [ Continue Reading ]
The eagle. Is it at Job's command that the eagle fixes her habitation fearlessly on the dizzy crag? Did he bestow on her her penetrating vision, which scans the wide expanse of country and pierces into the deep ravine? or did he endow her with her terrible instincts, that shew themselves at once in... [ Continue Reading ]