Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 39:4

Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

4. 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 young are robust; they grow up in the desert and rapidly provide for themselves. The care of God suffices for them.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Their young ones are in good liking – Hebrew they are fat; and hence, it means that they are strong and robust.

They grow up with corn – Herder, Gesenius, Noyes, Umbreit, and Rosenmuller render this, in the wilderness, or field. The proper and usual meaning of the word used here ( bar) is corn (grain); but in Chaldee it has the sense of open fields, or country. The same idea is found in the Arabic, and this sense seems to be required by the connection. The idea is not that they are nurtured with grain, which would require the care of man, but that they are nurtured under the direct eye of God far away from human dwellings, and even when they go away from their dam and return no more to the place of their birth. This is one of the instances, therefore, in which the connection seems to require us to adopt a signification that does not elsewhere occur in the Hebrew, but which is found in the cognate languages.

They go forth, and return not unto them – God guards and preserves them, even when they wander away from their dam, and are left helpless. Many of the young of animals require long attention from man, many are kept for a considerable period by the side of the mother, but the idea here seems to be, that the young of the wild goat and of the fawn are thrown early on the providence of God, and are protected by him alone. The particular care of Providence over these animals seems to be specified because there are no others that are exposed to so many dangers in their early life. Every creature then is a formidable enemy. The eagle, the falcon, the osprey, the wolf, the dog, and all the rapacious animals of the cat kind, are in continual employment to find out their retreat. But what is more unnatural still, the stag himself is a professed enemy, and she, the hind, is obliged to use all her arts to conceal her young from him, as from the most dangerous of her pursuers. Goldsmiths Nat. His.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. In good liking] After the fawns have sucked for some time, the dam leads them to the pastures, where they feed on different kinds of herbage; but not on corn, for they are not born before harvest-time in Arabia and Palestine, and the stag does not feed on corn, but on grass, moss, and the shoots of the fir, beech, and other trees: therefore the word bar, here translated corn, should be translated the open field or country. See Parkhurst. Their nurslings bound away. – Mr. Good. In a short time they become independent of the mother, leave her, and return no more. The spirit of the questions in these verses appears to be the following: – Understandest thou the cause of breeding of the mountain goats, &c.? Art thou acquainted with the course and progress of the parturition, and the manner in which the bones grow, and acquire solidity in the womb? See Mr. Good’s observations.

Houbigant’s version appears very correct: (Knowest thou) “how their young ones grow up, increase in the fields, and once departing, return to them no more?”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Are in good liking; or, grow strong, or fat; notwithstanding their great weakness caused by their hard entrance into the world.

With corn; which they find and feed upon in the fields. Or, as with corn, i.e. as if they were fed with corn; the particle as being oft deficient, and to be supplied. Or, in the field, as this word in the Chaldee or Syriac dialect signifies.

Return not unto them; finding sufficient provisions abroad by the care and conduct of Gods providence.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. are in good likingin goodcondition, grow up strong.

with cornrather, “inthe field,” without man’s care.

return notbeing ableto provide for themselves.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Their young ones are in good liking,…. Plump, fat, and sleek, as fawns are:

they grow up with corn; by which they grow, or without in the field, as the word also signifies; and their growth and increase is very quick, as Aristotle observes l;

they go forth, and return not unto them: they go forth into the fields, and shift and provide for themselves, and trouble their dams no more; and return not to them, nor are they known by them.

l Ib. (Aristot. Hist. Animal.) l. 6. c. 29.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

XXXIX.

(4) They grow up with corn.Or more probably, perhaps, in the open field, as the word means according to some.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. Are in good liking Become strong.

With corn Rather, in the wilderness.

Unto them To their parents. A suggestive trait of the brute creation, that the offspring, when grown, is forever alienated from the parent as parent. The tender links that bind the child of a human being to its parent as long as life shall last, are unknown in the creation beneath us. The affection of the one race is eloquent and prophetic of immortality; the want of it in the other seems to indicate that this present life answers all the ends, and subserves all the purposes, of brute being.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

Ver. 4. Their young ones are in good liking ] Or, they recover; revalescent begin to grow well , as Isa 58:14 , notwithstanding the hardness of their birth, by reason of their dam’s exceeding dry temperature, Psa 42:1 . As the hind brayeth after the water brooks, as being naturally hot and dry, when in pain especially; and this the young are sensible of in their coming into the world, which yet they soon recover and grow sleek and fat, (Sept.). Let God be trusted for the welfare of our children, though weak and wearish when newly born, and hard put to it in the birth.

They grow up with corn ] Or, in the field; after that they have been nourished a while with their dam’s milk, they forage for themselves; being calved about autumn, as Aristotle noteth, that is, in seed time; others say, about harvest, when grain is in the field, and God’s great barn door open, as the proverb is. This is here brought as an argument for the Divine providence.

They go forth, and return not unto them ] That is, to their dams; as finding food enough abroad. Thus other creatures, as soon as they are born almost, can shift for themselves; only poor shiftless man is long ere he can do anything, or comes to any proof, to be able to provide for himself.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

with corn = in the open field. Hebrew. bar. A Homonym with three meanings: (1) pure, clear, clean (Job 11:4. Son 6:9, Son 6:10. Psa 19:8; Psa 24:4; Psa 73:1, &c); hence corn winnowed and cleansed (Gen 41:35, Gen 41:49. Psa 65:13. Pro 11:26. Joe 2:24, &c); (2) the ground, or open field (Job 39:4), because bare and clean. Compare Pro 14:4; (3) ton: see note on Psa 2:12.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Reciprocal: Gen 1:30 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 39:4. Their young ones are in good liking Notwithstanding their great weakness caused by their hard entrance into the world. They grow up with corn As with corn; that is, as if they were fed with corn. They go forth and return not Finding sufficient provisions abroad by the care of Gods providence.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments