Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 39:26
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the south?
26. 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?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom – The appeal here is to the hawk, because it is among the most rapid of the birds in its flight. The particuIar thing specified is its flying, and it is supposed that there was something special in that which distinguished it from other birds. Whether it was in regard to its speed, to its manner of flying, or to its habits of flying at periodical seasons, may indeed be made a matter of inquiry, but it is clear that the particular thing in this bird which was adapted to draw the attention, and which evinced especially the wisdom of God, was connected with its flight. The word here rendered hawk, ( nets) is probably generic, and includes the various species of the falcon or hawk tribe, as the jet-falcon, the goshawk, the sparrow, hawk, the lanner, the saker, the hobby, the kestril, and the merlin. Not less than one hundred and fifty species of the hawk, it is said, have been described, but of these many are little known, and many of them differ from others only by very slight distinctions.
They are birds of prey, and, as many of them are endowed with remarkable docility, they are trained for the diversions of falconry – which has been quite a science among sportsmen. The falcon, or hawk, is often distinguished for fleetness. One, belonging to a Duke of Cleves, flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk (England) one was known to make a flight of nearly thirty miles in an hour. A falcon which belonged to Henry IV. of France, having escaped from Fontainebleau, was found twenty-four hours after in Malta, the space traversed being not less than one thousand three hundred and fifty miles; being a velocity of about fifty-seven miles an hour, on the supposition that the bird was on the wing the whole time. It is this remarkable velocity which is here appealed to as a proof of the divine wisdom. God asks Job whether he could have formed these birds for their rapid flight. The wisdom and skill which has done this is evidently far above any that is possessed by man.
And stretch her wings toward the south – Referring to the fact that the bird is migratory at certain seasons of the year. It is not here merely the rapidity of its flight which is referred to, but that remarkable instinct which leads the feathered tribes to seek more congenial climates at the approach of winter. In no way is this to be accounted for, except by the fact that God has so appointed it. This great law of the winged tribes is one of the clearest proofs of divine wisdom and agency.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom] The hawk is called nets, from its swiftness in darting down upon its prey; hence its Latin name, nisus, which is almost the same as the Hebrew. It may very probably mean the falcon, observes Dr. Shaw. The flight of a strong falcon is wonderfully swift. A falcon belonging to the Duke of Cleves flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock of near thirty miles in an hour. Thuanus says, “A hawk flew from London to Paris in one night.” It was owing to its swiftness that the Egyptians in their hieroglyphics made it the emblem of the wind.
Stretch her wings toward the south?] Most of the falcon tribe pass their spring and summer in cold climates; and wing their way toward warmer regions on the approach of winter. This is what is here meant by stretching her wings toward the south. Is it through thy teaching that this or any other bird of passage knows the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go in order to come to a warmer climate? There is much of the wisdom and providence of God to be seen in the migration of birds of passage. This has been remarked before. There is a beautiful passage in Jeremiah, Jer 8:7, on the same subject: “The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Doth the hawk fly in so singular a manner, so strongly and steadily, so constantly and unweariedly, so swiftly and speedily, so regularly and cunningly, to catch her prey, by thy wisdom; didst thou inspire her with that wisdom?
Stretch her wings toward the south; which she doth, either.
1. When she casts her old feathers, and gets new ones, which is furthered either by the warmth of southerly winds, or by the heat of the sun, which was southward from Jobs country, as it is from ours; whence it is, that as wild hawks do this by natural instinct, so the places which men build for the keeping of tame hawks are built towards the south. Or,
2. In or towards winter, when wild hawks fly into warmer countries, as being impatient of cold weather.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. The instinct by which somebirds migrate to warmer climes before winter. Rapid flying peculiarlycharacterizes the whole hawk genus.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,…. With so much swiftness, steadiness, and constancy, until she has seized her prey. The Vulgate Latin version and some others read, “does she become feathered”, or “begin to have feathers?” and so Bochart: either when first fledged; or when, as it is said d she casts her old feathers and gets new ones, and this every year. Now neither her flight nor her feathers, whether at one time or the other, are owing to men, but to the Lord, who gives both;
[and] stretch her wings towards the south? Being a bird of passage, she moves from colder climates towards the winter, and steers her course to the south towards warmer ones e; which she does by an instinct in nature, put into her by the Lord, and not through the instruction of man. Or, as some say, casting off her old feathers, she flies towards the south for warmth; and that her feathers may be cherished with the heat, and grow the sooner and better. Hence it is, perhaps, as Aelianus reports f, that this bird was by the Egyptians consecrated to Apollo or the sun; it being able to look upon the rays of it wistly, constantly, and easily, without being hurt thereby. Porphyry g says, that this bird is not only acceptable to the sun; but has divinity in it, according to the Egyptians; and is no other than Osiris, or the sun represented by the image of it h. Strabo i speaks of a city of the hawks, where this creature is worshipped. It has its name in Greek from the sacredness of it; and according to Hesiod k, is very swift, and has large wings. It is called , swift in flying, by Manetho l; and by Homer, , the swiftest of fowls m. It has its name from , to “fly”, as Kimchi observes n. Cyril of Jerusalem, on the authority of the Greek version, affirms o, that by a divine instinct or order, the hawk, stretching out its wings, stands in the midst of the air unmoved, looking towards the south. All accounts show it to be a bird that loves warmth, which is the reason of the expression in the text.
d Aelian. de Animal. l. 12. c. 4. e Ibid. l. 2. c. 43. Plin. l. 10. c. 8. f De Animal. l. 7. c. 9. & l. 10. c. 14. g De Abstinentia, l. 4. s. 9. h Kircher. Prodrom. Copt. p. 232. i Geograph. l. 17. p. 562. k Opera & Dies, l. 1. v. 208. l Apotelesm. l. 5. v. 176. m Iliad. 15. v. 238. Odyss 13. v. 87. n Sepher Shorash. rad. . o Cateches. 9. s. 6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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, signifies the hawk (which is significant in the Hieroglyphics): the soaring one, the high-flyer (comp. Arab. nss , to rise, struggle forwards, and Arab. ndd , to raise the wings for flight). The Hiph. – (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 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 ).
(Note: Less unfavourable to this rendering is the following, that signifies the long feathers, and the wing that is composed of them (perhaps, since the Talm. signifies wings and limbs, artus, from = , Arab. hbr , to divide, furnish with joints), although (from , to fly) is the more general designation of the feathers of birds.)
Thus, then, the point of the question will lie in : 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 , from , 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 , viz., the golden eagle ( Aquila chrysatos), 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 ) at thy command … ? The former is more natural here. , Job 39:28, signifies prop. specula (from , to spy); then, however, as Arab. masad (referred by the original lexicons to masada ), the high hill, and the mountain-top. The rare form , for which Ges., Olsh., and others wish to read or (from , deglutire ), is to be derived from , a likewise secondary form out of (from , 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 to be supposed, is not to be derived from , 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 , Arab. la , also signifies: “to take a second, third, etc., drink after the first,” concerning which more details will be given elsewhere. goes back to , lactare , with the middle vowel, whence also , Job 16:11; Job 12:18; Job 21:11 (which see). The Hauran dialect has alul (plur. awall ), like the Hebr. ( = ), in the signification juvenis , and especially juvencus (comp. infra, p. 689, note 3, “but they are heifers,” Arab. illa awall ).)
like out of (from , Arab. srr , to make firm), Ew. 118, a, comp. Frst, Handwrterbuch, sub , since instances are wanting in favour of being formed out of ( Jesurun, p. 164). Schult. not inappropriately compares even = in , = . 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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Description of the Hawk and Eagle. | B. C. 1520. |
26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? 27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.
The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful power and providences of God, as well as the beasts of the earth; God here refers particularly to two stately ones:– 1. The hawk, a noble bird of great strength and sagacity, and yet a bird of prey, v. 26. This bird is here taken notice of for her flight, which is swift and strong, and especially for the course she steers towards the south, whither she follows the sun in winter, out of the colder countries in the north, especially when she is to cast her plumes and renew them. This is her wisdom, and it was God that gave her this wisdom, not man. Perhaps the extraordinary wisdom of the hawk’s flight after her prey was not used then for men’s diversion and recreation, as it has been since. It is a pity that the reclaimed hawk, which is taught to fly at man’s command and to make him sport, should at any time be abused to the dishonour of God, since it is from God that she receives that wisdom which makes her flight entertaining and serviceable. 2. The eagle, a royal bird, and yet a bird of prey too, the permission of which, nay, the giving of power to which, may help to reconcile us to the prosperity of oppressors among men. The eagle is here taken notice of, (1.) For the height of her flight. No bird soars so high, has so strong a wind, nor can so well bear the light of the sun. Now, “Doth she mount at thy command? v. 27. Is it by any strength she has from thee? or dost thou direct her flight? No; it is by the natural power and instinct God has given her that she will soar out of thy sight, much more out of thy call.” (2.) For the strength of her nest. Her house is her castle and strong-hold; she makes it on high and on the rock, the crag of the rock (v. 28), which sets her and her young out of the reach of danger. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rock; but I will bring thee down thence, saith the Lord, Jer. xlix. 16. The higher bad men sit above the resentments of the earth the nearer they ought to think themselves to the vengeance of Heaven. (3.) For her quicksightedness (v. 29): Her eyes behold afar off, not upwards, but downwards, in quest of her prey. In this she is an emblem of a hypocrite, who, while, in the profession of religion, he seems to rise towards heaven, keeps his eye and heart upon the prey on earth, some temporal advantage, some widow’s house or other that he hopes to devour, under pretence of devotion. (4.) For the way she has of maintaining herself and her young. She preys upon living animals, which she seizes and tears to pieces, and thence carries to her young ones, which are taught to suck up blood; they do it by instinct, and know no better; but for men that have reason and conscience to thirst after blood is what could scarcely be believed if there had not been in every age wretched instances of it. She also preys upon the dead bodies of men: Where the slain are, there is she, These birds of prey (in another sense than the horse, v. 25) smell the battle afar off. Therefore, when a great slaughter is to be made among the enemies of the church, the fowls are invited to the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings and captains,Rev 19:17; Rev 19:18. Our Saviour refers to this instinct of the eagle, Matt. xxiv. 28. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Every creature will make towards that which is its proper food; for he that provides the creatures their food has implanted in them that inclination. These and many such instances of natural power and sagacity in the inferior creatures, which we cannot account for, oblige us to confess our own weakness and ignorance and to give glory to God as the fountain of all being, power, wisdom, and perfection.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(26) Doth the hawk fly?The more symmetrical order of these descriptions would be for the ostrich to have come after the war-horse and before the hawk; in that case there would have been a gradual transition from the fleetest of quadrupeds to the fleetest of birds by means of the ostrich, which, though winged like a bird, cannot use its wings as birds do, but only run on the ground like a quadruped.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
. Now that the splendid digression, setting before us the war-horse, is at an end, the thread of the subject is again taken up, and a new illustration given of diversities springing from similarities; a simple subject, which Job has failed to elucidate. The hawk and the eagle are marvellously alike in their structure, ( both belong to the Falconidae,) and yet the one is distinguished by a migratory instinct, while the other easily sits at the head of the bird creation, marked by wondrous powers of flight and no less wondrous vision, which, instead of leading it, as is the case with the hawk, on long and unknown journeys, serves rather for spying out an ignominious prey. 26-30.
“From that which is here intimated, (to wit, that other animals must sacrifice their life in order to satisfy the bloodthirsty brood of an eagle,) do we not see that the suffering of a single creature might, in God’s plan, be designed to benefit other creatures of God?” Victor Andrea.
26. The hawk God next adduces the strange instinct which, “intelligent of seasons,” leads to the migration of birds. The hawk is instanced, perhaps because he was esteemed sacred by some ancient nations. The hawk migrates southward during the latter part of September, “not in groups,” says Dr. Thomson, (i, 506,) “as do cranes, geese, and storks; but keeps passing for days in straggling lines, like scattered ranks of a routed army. Here and there, as far as eye can reach, they come, flying every one apart, but all going steadily to the south.” Of the law that enables
These aery caravans, high over seas
Flying, and over lands,
To steer their annual voyage, borne on winds,
back to the very spot that gave them birth, may we not say, with Hooker, comprehensively and grandly, “See we not plainly that obedience of creatures to the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?” The world of instinct, quite as much as that of reason, is emblazoned within and without with marks of divine thought and wisdom. The ways of reason do not so much elude the grasp of the human mind as do those of instinct. The superior, superhuman thought by which a confessedly inferior world is imbued and animated, is sublimely declaratory of a God. For instance, the mathematical (hexagonal) figure in which the bee works, displaying outgoings of mind to which man has so slowly attained, no less than the stately, undeviating flight of the hawk, points upward to a divine mind to an intelligence which is not from the animals themselves, but which is a necessity that has been laid upon them by a higher intelligence. The world of instinct proves to be “an inner design, and omnipresent reason in things,” and “in its proper spirit, it is an uninterrupted divine service, a thoughtful, intelligent glorification of that inexhaustible wisdom which reveals itself in nature.” Fichte. Job may be tacitly reminded of his own appeal to the brute creation. See Job 12:7, with note.
The wondrous instinct of the hawk evidently led to its being held sacred throughout the land of Egypt. In various combinations the figure of the bird served for the function of Egyptian hieroglyphics. See BUNSEN, Egypt’s Place, etc., 1:507, 517. It was sacred to Horus, (the Egyptian Apollo,) whose priests, according to AElian, ( Hist. of Anim., Job 10:14,) were called hieracobosci, or hawk-feeders, since it was their office to take care of the sacred hawks.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 39:26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom? &c. Thuanus, De Re Accip. mentions a hawk which flew from London to Paris in a night; and it was on account of its remarkable swiftness that the Egyptians made it their hieroglyphic for the wind.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(26) Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
This is not the only part of scripture where the LORD makes use of the instinct of nature, in the birds or beasts of the earth, to teach man wisdom. What a beautiful description is given by the Prophet of that peculiar property in the birds of passage, when, on the approach of winter, they collect in parties, and take their flight to warmer climates. The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD . Jer 8:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 39:26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the south?
Ver. 26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom? ] Or, Doth the hawk ( plumescere) get her feathers by thy wisdom? The word cometh from a root which signifieth strong, because the strength of fowls is in their wings, their delight in high flying. Hath the hawk her wings from thee? and doth she recruit and use them, artificio et auspicio, by thy art or industry? Tame them indeed men may, and bring them to hand, as falconers do, for pleasure more than for profit; but neither can they give them their wings nor repair them when broken.
And stretch her wings toward the south
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
her. Hebrew = his.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 39:26-30
Job 39:26-30
BEHOLD THE MYSTERIES OF THE HAWK AND THE EAGLE
“Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soareth?
And stretcheth her wings toward the south?
Is it at thy command that the eagle mounteth up,
And maketh her nest on high?
On the cliff she dwelleth, and maketh her home,
Upon the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
From thence she spieth out the prey;
Her eyes beholdeth it afar off.
Her young ones suck up blood:
And where the slain are, there is she.
The hawk and the eagle are birds of prey; and
their behavior is the wonder of all who ever observed it carefully.”
“The eagle … maketh her nest on high” (Job 39:27. In October of 1953, while this writer was a chaplain in the Far East, he once was taken for an excursion on a plane which the GI’s called the “Charlie 119”; and we circled the summit of a mountain in southern Japan called `Mount Aso.’ There, on the very lip of that active volcano was an eagle’s nest! Who can explain such things as that?
“Her eyes beholdeth it afar off” (Job 39:29). Long before mankind discovered such a thing as the telescope, both eagles and vultures were provided with telescopic vision, an ability most certainly me
E.M. Zerr:
Job 39:26-30. See the remarks in the preceding paragraph concerning the flying of the birds. Man is an imitator of the bird in devising mechanical means for traveling through the air. This proves that the actions of birds are the result of some power other than man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the hawk: Netz, Arabic naz, Latin nisus, the hawk, so called from natzah, to shoot away, fly, because of the rapidity of its flight. It probably comprehends various species of the falcon family, as the ger-falcon, goshawk, and sparrowhawk. Lev 16:11, Deu 14:15
stretch: Is it through thy teaching that the falcon, or any other bird of passage, knows the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go to arrive at a warmer climate? Son 2:12, Jer 8:7
Reciprocal: Psa 50:11 – know Pro 6:7 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 39:26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom? So strongly, constantly, unweariedly, and swiftly. Thuanus mentions a hawk which flew from London to Paris in a night; and it was on account of the remarkable swiftness of the hawk that the Egyptians made it their hieroglyphic for the wind; and stretch her wings toward the south The addition of this clause implies, that these birds are fond of warmth, or that they are birds of passage, which, at the approach of winter, fly into warmer countries, as being impatient of cold. The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful providence of God, as well as the beasts of the earth, and God here instances in two eminent ones.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
39:26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the {p} south?
(p) That is, when cold comes, to fly into the warm countries.