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i.e. I have decreed or appointed. Or, I shall command, i.e. effectually move them, by instincts and inclinations which I shall put into them, which shall be as forcible with them as a law or command is to men. God is said to command both brute creatures, as Amo_9:3 Jon_2:10, and senseless things, as Job_38:11,12 Psa 78:23 Isa_5:6 45:12, when he causeth them to do the things which he intends to effect by them.
I have commanded the ravens; which he names, and chooseth for this work; partly to succour the prophet’s faith against human infirmity, by the credibility of the thing; there being many ravens in those parts, and those delighting to reside near brooks of water; and that sort of creatures being apt and accustomed to seek provisions, and to carry them away to the places of their abode; and partly to show his care and power in providing for the prophet by those creatures, which are noted for their greediness in monopolizing provision to themselves, and for their malignity and unnaturalness towards their own young; that by this strange and noble experiment he might be taught to trust God in those many and great difficulties to which he was likely to be exposed.
Object. The ravens were unclean, Lev_11:15.
Answ. They were unclean for meat, but not for the touch. But howsoever, that ceremonial law was overruled by necessity, and by the Lawgiver’s dispensation.