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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 39:26 - 39:26
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
Doth it spread its wings towards the south?
27 Or is it at thy command that the eagle soareth aloft,
And buildeth its nest on high?
28 It inhabiteth the rock, and buildeth its nest
Upon the crag of the rock and fastness.
29 From thence it seeketh food,
Its eyes see afar off.
30 And its young ones suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there is it.
The ancient versions are unanimous in testifying that, according to the signification of the root, נֵץ signifies the hawk (which is significant in the Hieroglyphics): the soaring one, the high-flyer (comp. Arab. nṣṣ, to rise, struggle forwards, and Arab. nḍḍ, to raise the wings for flight). The Hiph. יַֽאֲבֶר- (jussive form in the question, as Job 13:27) might signify: to get feathers, plumescere (Targ., Jer.), but that gives a tame question; wherefore Gregory understands the plumescit of the Vulgate of moulting, for which purpose the hawk seeks the sunny side. But הֶֽאֱבִיר alone, by itself, cannot signify “to get new feathers;” moreover, an annual moulting is common to all birds, and prominence is alone given to the new feathering of the eagle in the Old Testament, Psa 103:5; Mic 1:16, comp. Isa 40:31 (lxx πτεροφυήσουσιν ὡς ἀετοί).
(Note: Less unfavourable to this rendering is the following, that אֶבְרָה signifies the long feathers, and אֵבֶר the wing that is composed of them (perhaps, since the Talm. אֲבָרִים signifies wings and limbs, artus, from אָבַר = הָבַר, Arab. hbr, to divide, furnish with joints), although נֹוצָה (from נָצָה, to fly) is the more general designation of the feathers of birds.)
Thus, then, the point of the question will lie in לְתֵימָן: the hawk is a bird of passage, God has endowed it with instinct to migrate to the south as the winter season is approaching.
In Job 39:27 the circle of the native figures taken from animal life, which began with the lion, the king of quadrupeds, is now closed with the eagle, the king of birds. It is called נֶשֶׁר, from נָשַׁר, Arab. nsr, vellere; as also vultur (by virtue of a strong power of assimilation = vultor) is derived from vellere, - a common name of the golden eagle, the lamb's vulture, the carrion-kite (Cathartes percnopterus), and indeed also of other kinds of kites and falcons. There is nothing to prevent our understanding the eagle κατ ̓ εξοχήν, viz., the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaëtos), in the present passage; for even to this, corpses, though not already putrified, are a welcome prey. In Job 39:27 we must translate either: and is it at thy command that ... ? or: is it so that (as in הֲכִי) at thy command ... ? The former is more natural here. מְצוּדָה, Job 39:28, signifies prop. specula (from צוּד, to spy); then, however, as Arab. masâd (referred by the original lexicons to masada), the high hill, and the mountain-top. The rare form יְעַלְעוּ, for which Ges., Olsh., and others wish to read לַעְלְעוּ or יְלַעְלְעוּ (from לוּעַ, deglutire), is to be derived from עָלַע, a likewise secondary form out of עִלְעֵל (from עוּל, to suck, to give suck),
(Note: The Arab. ‛alla does not belong here: it gains the signification iterum bibere from the primary signification of “coming over or upon anything,” which branches out in various ways: to take a second, third, etc., drink after the first. More on this point on Isa 3:4.
Supplementary note: The quadriliteral עִלְעֵל to be supposed, is not to be derived from עָלַל, and is not, as it recently has been, to be compared with Arab. ‛ll, “to drink.” This Arab. verb does not signify “to drink” at all, but, among many other branchings out of its general primary signification, related to עלה, Arab. ‛lâ, also signifies: “to take a second, third, etc., drink after the first,” concerning which more details will be given elsewhere. עִלְעֵל goes back to עוּל, lactare, with the middle vowel, whence also עֲוִיל, Job 16:11; Job 12:18; Job 21:11 (which see). The Hauran dialect has ‛âlûl (plur. ‛awâlı̂l), like the Hebr. עֹולָל (עֹולֵל = מְעֹולֵל), in the signification juvenis, and especially juvencus (comp. infra, p. 689, note 3, “but they are heifers,” Arab. illâ ‛awâlı̂l).)
like שָׁרַשׁ out of שַׁרְשַׁר (from שָׁרַר, Arab. srr, to make firm), Ew. §118, a, comp. Fürst, Handwörterbuch, sub עוּל, since instances are wanting in favour of עלע being formed out of לעלע (Jesurun, p. 164). Schult. not inappropriately compares even גלג = גלגל in גָּלְגְּתָא, Γολγοθᾶ = גָּלְגָּלְתָּא. The concluding words, Job 39:30, are perhaps echoed in Mat 24:28. High up on a mountain-peak the eagle builds its eyrie, and God has given it a remarkably sharp vision, to see far into the depth below the food that is there for it and its young ones. Not merely from the valley in the neighbourhood of its eyrie, but often from distant plains, which lie deep below on the other side of the mountain range, it seizes its prey, and rises with it even to the clouds, and bears it home to its nest.
(Note: Vid., the beautiful description in Charles Boner's Forest Creatures, 1861.)
Thus does God work exceeding strangely, but wonderously, apparently by contradictions, but in truth most harmoniously and wisely, in the natural world.