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God proceeds here to show Job what little reason he had to charge him with unkindness who was so compassionate to the inferior creatures and took such a tender care of them, or to boast of himself, and his own good deeds before God, which were nothing to the divine mercies. He shows him also what great reason he had to be humble who knew so little of the nature of the creatures about him and had so little influence upon them, and to submit to that God on whom they all depend. He discourses particularly, I. Concerning the wild goats and hinds (Job 39:1-4). II. Concerning the wild ass (Job 39:5-8). III. Concerning the unicorn (Job 39:9-12). IV. Concerning the horse (Job 39:19-25). VII. Concerning the hawk and the eagle (Job 39:26-30).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 39 This chapter treats of various creatures, beasts and birds, which Job had little knowledge of, had no concern in the making of them, and scarcely any power over them; as of the goats and hinds, Job 39:1; of the wild ass, Job 39:5; of the unicorn, Job 39:9; of the peacock and ostrich, Job 39:13; of the horse, Job 39:19; and of the hawk and eagle, Job 39:26.

Her young ones also suck up blood,.... As well as herself, being brought up to it by her. The eagle cares not for water, but drinks the blood of her prey; and so her young ones after her, as naturalists report (w). And Aelianus says (x) the same of the hawk, that it eats no seeds, but devours flesh and drinks blood, and nourishes her young ones with the same. And where the slain are, there is she; where there has been a battle, and carcasses left on the field, the eagles will gather to them. This is particularly true of that kind of eagles called vulture eagles, as Aristotle (y) and Pliny (z) observe; see Mat 24:28. Now since Job was so ignorant of the nature of these creatures, and incapable of governing and directing them; and what they had of any excellency were of God, and not of him, nor of any man; how unfit must he be to dispute with God, and contend with him about his works of providence? which to convince him of was the design of this discourse about the creatures; and which had its intended effect, as appears in the next chapter. (w) Aristot. de Animal. l. 8. c. 3. 18. Aelianus, l. 2. c. 26. (x) Ib. l. 10. c. 14. (y) Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 32. (z) Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 3. Next: Job Chapter 40

Her young ones suck up blood. And wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present. 104. As if it were plainly said; She herself indeed feeds on the contemplation of His Godhead, but because her hearers cannot understand the mysteries of the Godhead, they are satiated with hearing of the blood of the Lord Crucified. For to suck up blood, is to reverence the weaknesses of the Lord's Passion. Hence it is, that the same Paul, who, as we said a little before, had soared to the secrets of the third heaven, said to his disciples; For I have determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. [l Cor. 2, 2] As if this eagle were plainly saying; I indeed behold as my food the power of His Godhead afar off, but to you, who are still young, I give the blood only of His Incarnation to be sucked up. For he, who in his preaching had been silent as to the loftiness of the Godhead, and informs his weak hearers of the Blood alone of the Cross, what else does he do, but give blood to his young ones? But, because the soul of every holy preacher is, when stripped of the corruption of the flesh, led directly to Him, Who of His own accord submitted to death for us, and rose from death, it is fitly added of this eagle, And wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present. 105. For a carcase is so called from its fall. And the body of the Lord is, not undeservedly, called a carcase, on account of the fall of death. But that which is here said of this eagle; Wheresoever the carcase shall he, she is immediately present; this same thing the Truth has promised will take place, in souls as they depart from the body, saying, Wheresoever the body shall he, thither will the eagles also be gathered together. [Luke l7, 37] As if He plainly said, I, your Incarnate Redeemer, Who preside over the heavenly abode, will exalt the souls of the Elect also, to heavenly places, when I shall have released them from the flesh. 106. But this which is said of this eagle; Wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present, can be understood in another sense also. For every one, who has fallen into the death of sin, will be able, not inappropriately, to be called a carcase. For he, who has not the quickening spirit of righteousness, lies, as it were, without life. Because, then, every holy preacher anxiously flies to the spot, where he thinks there are sinners, to shew the light of revival to those who are lying in the death of sin, it is well said of this eagle; Wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present. That is, he proceeds to the place, where he foresees the utility of preaching; in order that, because he already lives a spiritual life, he may benefit others who are lying in their death, whom he devours, as it were, by reproving, yet, by converting them from iniquity to innocence, he changes them, as it were, by eating them, into his own members. Lo, the very Paul, whom we have already frequently brought forward for a testimony, when he was going at one time to Judaea, at another to Corinth, at another to Ephesus, at another to Rome, at another to the Spains, that he might announce the grace of eternal life to those who were lying in the death of sin; what else did he prove himself to be but an eagle; which, swiftly flying over every thing, was seeking for the carcase wheresoever lying; in order that, while he was performing the will of God, in having gained sinners, he might find, as it were, his own food in the carcase? For the food of the righteous is the conversion of sinners, of which it is said, Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal life. [John 6, 27]

The eagle is powerful in game like the lion among quadrupeds. To show this he says, "His young suck up blood," that is, of the living animals which the eagle carries back to the nest. The eagle eats not only live animals, like falcons and hawks, but also the carcasses of dead animals, and so he says, "and wherever there is a carcass he immediately goes there." In this text he also shows the swiftness of his flight.

Several animals described: the wild goats and hinds, Job 39:1-4. The wild ass, Job 39:5-8. The unicorn, Job 39:9-12. The peacock and ostrich, Job 39:13-18. The war-horse, Job 39:19-25. The hawk, Job 39:26. And the eagle and her brood, Job 39:27-30.

Her young ones also suck up blood - The eagle does not feed her young with carrion, but with prey newly slain, so that they may suck up blood. Where the slain are, there is she - These words are quoted by our Lord. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together," Mat 24:28 (note). It is likely, however, that this was a proverbial mode of expression; and our Lord adapts it to the circumstances of the Jewish people, who were about to fall a prey to the Romans. See the notes there. In the preceding notes I have referred to Dr. Shaw's account of the ostrich as the most accurate and authentic yet published. With the following description I am sure every intelligent reader will be pleased. "In commenting therefore upon these texts it may be observed, that when the ostrich is full grown, the neck, particularly of the male, which before was almost naked, is now very beautifully covered with red feathers. The plumage likewise upon the shoulders, the back, and some parts of the wings, from being hitherto of a dark grayish color, becomes now as black as jet, whilst the rest of the feathers retain an exquisite whiteness. They are, as described Job 39:13, the very feathers and plumage of the stork, i.e., they consist of such black and white feathers as the stork, called from thence hdysx chasidah, is known to have. But the belly, the thighs, and the breast, do not partake of this covering, being usually naked, and when touched are of the same warmth as the flesh of quadrupeds. "Under the joint of the great pinion, and sometimes under the less, there is a strong pointed excrescence like a cock's spur, with which it is said to prick and stimulate itself, and thereby acquire fresh strength and vigor whenever it is pursued. But nature seems rather to have intended that, in order to prevent the suffocating effects of too great a plethora, a loss of blood should be consequent thereupon, especially as the ostrich appears to be of a hot constitution, with lungs always confined, and consequently liable to be preter-naturally inflamed upon these occasions. "When these birds are surprised by coming suddenly upon them whilst they are feeding in some valley, or behind some rocky or sandy eminence in the deserts, they will not stay to be curiously viewed and examined. Neither are the Arabs ever dexterous enough to overtake them, even when they are mounted upon their jinse, or horses, as they are called, of family. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, (Job 39:18), laugh at the horse and his rider. They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was of ascribing to them (Job 30:13) an expanded quivering wing. Nothing, certainly, can be more beautiful and entertaining than such a sight! The wings, by their repeated though unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; whilst their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, are in no degree sensible of fatigue. "By the repeated accounts which I often had from my conductors, as well as from Arabs of different places, I have been informed that the ostrich lays from thirty to fifty eggs. Aelian mentions more than eighty, but I never heard of so large a number. The first egg is deposited in the center; the rest are placed as conveniently as possible round about it. In this manner it is said to lay-deposit or thrust (Job 39:14) - her eggs in The Earth, and to warm them in the sand, and forgetteth, as they are not placed, like those of some other birds, upon trees or in the clefts of rocks, etc., that the foot of the traveler may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them. "Yet notwithstanding the ample provision which is hereby made for a numerous offspring, scarce one quarter of these eggs are ever supposed to be hatched; and of those that are, no small share of the young ones may perish with hunger, from being left too early by their dams to shift for themselves. For in these the most barren and desolate recesses of the Sahara, where the ostrich chooses to make her nest, it would not be enough to lay eggs and hatch them, unless some proper food was near at hand, and already prepared for their nourishment. And accordingly we are not to consider this large collection of eggs as if they were all intended for a brood; they are, the greatest part of them, reserved for food, which the dam breaks and disposes of according to the number and the cravings of her young ones. "But yet, for all this, a very little share of that στοργη, or natural affection, which so strongly exerts itself in most other creatures, is observable in the ostrich. For, upon the least distant noise or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones, to which perhaps she never returns, or if she do, it may be too late either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the other. Agreeably to this account, the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed; some of which are sweet and good, others are addle and corrupted, others again have their young ones of different growths, according to the time it may be presumed they have been forsaken by the dam. They oftener meet a few of the little ones, no bigger than well-grown pullets, half starved, straggling, and moaning about, like so many distressed orphans, for their mother. And in this manner the ostrich may be said (Job 39:16) to be hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers; her labor in hatching and attending them so far being vain without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterwards. This want of affection is also recorded, Lam 4:3 : The daughter of my people, says the prophet, is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. "Neither is this the only reproach that may be due to the ostrich; she is likewise inconsiderate and foolish in her private capacity; particularly in the choice of food, which is frequently highly detrimental and pernicious to her; for she swallows every thing greedily and indiscriminately, whether it be pieces of rags, leather, wood, stone, or iron. When I was at Oram, I saw one off these birds swallow, without any seeming uneasiness or inconvenience, several leaden bullets, as they were thrown upon the floor, scorching hot from the mould, the inner coats of the aesophapus and stomach being probably better stocked with glands and juices than in other animals with shorter necks. They are particularly fond of their own excrement, which they greedily eat up as soon as it is voided. No less fond are they of the dung of hens and other poultry. It seems as if their optic as well as olfactory nerves were less adequate and conducive to their safety and preservation than in other creatures. The Divine providence in this, no less than in other respects, (Job 39:17), having deprived them of wisdom, neither hath it imparted to them understanding. "Those parts of the Sahara which these birds chiefly frequent are destitute of all manner of food and herbage, except it be some few tufts of coarse grass, or else a few other solitary plants of the laureola, apocynum, and some other kinds; each of which is equally destitute of nourishment; and, in the psalmist's phrase, (Psa 129:6), even withereth afore it groweth up. Yet these herbs, notwithstanding their dryness, and want of moisture in their temperature, will sometimes have both their leaves and their stalks studded all over with a great variety of land snails, which may afford them some little refreshment. It is very probable, likewise, that they may sometimes seize upon lizards, serpents, together with insects and reptiles of various kinds. Yet still, considering the great voracity and size of this camel-bird, it is wonderful, not only how the little ones, after they are weaned from the provisions I have mentioned, should be brought up and nourished, but even how those of fuller growth and much better qualified to look out for themselves, are able to subsist. "Their organs of digestion, and particularly the gizzards, which, by their strong friction, will wear away iron itself, show them indeed to be granivorous; but yet they have scarce ever an opportunity to exercise them in this way, unless when they chance to stray, which is very seldom, towards those parts of the country which are sown and cultivated, For these, as they are much frequented by the Arabs at the several seasons of grazing, ploughing, and gathering in the harvest; so they are little visited by as indeed they would be an improper abode for this shy, timorous bird; φιλερημος, a lover of the deserts. This last circumstance in the behavior of the ostrich is frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures; particularly Isa 13:21; Isa 34:13; Isa 43:20; Jer 50:39; where the word, יענה yaanah, instead of being rendered the ostrich, as it is rightly put in the margin, is called the owl; a word used likewise instead of yaanah or the ostrich, Lev 11:16, and Deu 14:15. "Whilst I was abroad, I had several opportunities of amusing myself with the actions and behavior of the ostrich. It was very diverting to observe with what dexterity and equipoise of body it would play and frisk about on all occasions. In the heat of the day, particularly it would strut along the sunny side of the house with great majesty. It would be perpetually fanning and priding itself with its quivering expanded wings; and seem at every turn to admire and be in love with its shadow. Even at other times whether walking about or resting itself upon the ground, the wings would continue these fanning vibrating motions, as if they were designed to mitigate and assuage that extraordinary heat wherewith their bodies seem to be naturally affected. "Notwithstanding these birds appear tame and tractable to such persons of the family as were more known and familiar to them, yet they were often very rude and fierce to strangers, especially the poorer sort, whom they would not only endeavor to push down by running furiously upon them; but would not cease to peck at them violently with their bills, and to strike them with their feet; whereby they were frequently very mischievous. For the inward claw, or hoof rather as we may call it, of this avis bisulca, being exceedingly strong pointed and angular, I once saw an unfortunate person who had his belly ripped open by one of these strokes. Whilst they are engaged in these combats and assaults, they sometimes make a fierce, angry, and hissing noise with their throats inflated, and their mouths open; at other times, when less resistance is made they have a chuckling or cackling voice, as in the poultry kind; and thereby seem to rejoice and laugh as it were at the timorousness of their adversary. But during the lonesome part of the night, as if their organs of voice had then attained a quite different tone, they often made a very doleful and hideous noise; which would be sometimes like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear a near resemblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies; an action beautifully alluded to by the Prophet Micah, Mic 1:8, where it is said, I will make a mourning like the yaanah or ostrich. Yaanah, therefore, and רננים renanim, the names by which the ostrich is known in the Holy Scriptures, may very properly be deduced from ענה anah, and רנן ranan, words which the lexicographi explain by exclamare or clamare fortiter; for the noise made by the ostrich being loud and sonorous, exclamare or clamare fortiter may, with propriety enough, be attributed to it, especially as those words do not seem to denote any certain or determined mode of voice or sound peculiar to any one particular species of animals, but such as may be applicable to them all, to birds as well as to quadrupeds and other creatures." Shaw's Travels, p. 541, edit. 4th. 1757. The subjects in this chapter have been so various and important, that I have been obliged to extend the notes and observations to an unusual length; and yet much is left unnoticed which I wished to have inserted. I have made the best selection I could, and must request those readers who wish for more information to consult zoological writers.

(Job 39:1-30) Even wild beasts, cut off from all care of man, are cared for by God at their seasons of greatest need. Their instinct comes direct from God and guides them to help themselves in parturition; the very time when the herdsman is most anxious for his herds. wild goats--ibex (Psa 104:18; Sa1 24:2). hinds--fawns; most timid and defenseless animals, yet cared for by God.

Quoted partly by Jesus Christ (Mat 24:28). The food of young eagles is the blood of victims brought by the parent, when they are still too feeble to devour flesh. slain--As the vulture chiefly feeds on carcasses, it is included probably in the eagle genus. He had paused for a reply, but Job was silent. Next: Job Chapter 40