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

5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

6 b Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the 1barren land his dwellings.

7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying 2 of the driver.

Chap. xxiv. 5; Jer. ii. 24; Hosea viii. 9.1 Hebrew, salt places.

asunder to bring forth their young. The word is used, Prov. vii. 23, of a dart striking through and dividing the liver, and may here be considered as signifying, that the wild goats and hinds bring forth their young with as much pain as if a dart pierced them through. They cast out their sorrows-Partus suos, their births; LXX., wdivas avrwv, the pains, or sorrows, of bringing forth; that is, their young ones and their sorrows together.

Verse 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 God's providence.

Of the wild ass, unicorn, fc.

B. C. 1520.

8 The range of the mountains is A. M. 2484. his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? 12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring

Heb. of the exacter, Chap. iii. 18.— Num. xxiii. 22; Deut. xxxiii. 17.

pro, jischak, he laugheth at the multitude of the city-He mentions the city, rather than the country, because there is the greatest multitude of people to pursue, overtake, and subject him. The meaning is, He fears them not when they pursue him, because he is swift and can easily escape them. Or, he values them not, nor any provisions which he might have from them, but prefers a vagrant, solitary life in the wilderness before any thing they can offer him. Or he disdains to submit himself to them, and resolutely maintains his own freedom. Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver—Hebrew, wil, noges, the task-master, or exacter of labour, that is, he will not be brought to receive his yoke, nor to do his drudgery, nor to answer to his cries or commands, as tame asses are compelled to do. The range of the mountains-, jethur harim, excellentissimum montium, what is most excellent in the mountains; or, as the word may signify, That which he searcheth out, or findeth in the mountains. He prefers that mean provision and hardship, with his freedom, before the fattest pastures with servitude.

Verse 5. Who hath sent out the wild ass free?— Who hath given him this disposition, that he loves freedom, and hates that subjection which other creatures quietly endure. Compare chap. xi. 12; Hos. viii. 9; in which, and other places of Scripture, the wild ass is described as delighting in the wilderness; perverse and obstinate in his behaviour; run- || ning with great swiftness whither his lust, hunger, Verse 9. Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee thirst, or other desires draw him. Who hath loosed-Canst thou tame him, and bring him into subjecthe bands of the wild ass?—That is, who keeps him tion to thy command? Or, abide by thy crib ?—Will from receiving the bands, and submitting to the he suffer himself to be tied, or confined there all service of man? Who hath made him so untractable night, and kept for the work of the next day as the and unmanageable? Which is the more strange be- oxen are? Surely not. It is much disputed among cause home-bred asses are so tame and tractable. the learned, whether this reem, which is the Hebrew The word, gnarod, here translated wild ass, name of the animal here spoken of, be the rhinoceros, is not the same with that used in the former clause, or a certain kind of wild goat, called orix, or a kind which is, pere; and Rabbi Levi makes this dif- of wild bull, which seems most probable, both from ference between them, that the former means an the description of it here and elsewhere in Scripanimal found in the wilderness, which eateth herbs, ture. Schultens inclines to this opinion, thinking it and the latter, asinus agri vel sylvestris, the ass to be the Arabian buffalo of the bull species, but which frequents the cultivated grounds and woods, absolutely untameable, and which the Arabians freand is supported by their produce. Bochart, how- quently hunt. See the note on Num. xxiii. 22. ever, thinks they ought not to be distinguished, and that one and the same animal is meant in both places.

Verses 10, 11. Canst thou bind the unicorn in the furrow?-That is, in thy furrowed field, or to or for the furrow? that is, to make furrows, or to Verses 6-8. Whose house I have made the wil- plough, for which work cattle are usually bound derness-Which uses and loves to dwell in desert together, that they may be directed by the husbandlands; and the barren land his dwellings-Called|| men, and may make right furrows. Will he harrow barren, not simply, for then he must be starved there, the valleys--The low grounds; after thee ?--Under but comparatively uncultivated, and therefore, in a thy conduct, following thee step by step? Will thou great measure, unfruitful. He scorneth-Hebrew, || trust him-Namely, for the doing of these works;

The Lord answers Job.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The ostrich and her insensibility.

A. M. 2484. home thy seed, and gather it into thy || them, or that the wild beast may break A. M. 2484. barn?

B. C. 1520.

13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or 3 wings and feathers unto the ostrich? 14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust,

them.

B. C. 1520.

16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;

17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,

e

15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush neither hath he imparted to her understanding.

Or, the feathers of the stork and ostrich.

because his strength is great?--Because he is very able to do them. Wilt thou, by thy power, make him willing, or force him to put forth his strength in || thy service? Wilt thou leave thy labour-Thy work of ploughing and harrowing; or the fruit of thy labour, namely, the fruits of the earth, procured by God's blessing upon thy industry, to him ?--Wilt thou leave them to him to be brought home into thy barns? as the next verse explains it.

d Lam. iv. 3. Chap. xxxv. 11.

deposite, or trust, her eggs in the earth, and to warm them in the sand; and forget (as they are not placed, like those of some other birds, upon trees, or in the clefts of rocks, &c.) that the foot of the traveller may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them-Yet, notwithstanding the ample provision that is hereby made for a numerous offspring, scarce one quarter of these eggs are ever supposed to be hatched, and of those which are, no small share of the young ones may perish with hunger, from being left too early by their dams to shift for themselves."

:

Verse 13. Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks?—The subject now changes from beasts to birds. There is no Hebrew in the text for gavest || thou, and Bochart, who says of this verse, Vix ullus Verse 16. She is hardened against her young sit Scripturæ locus qui minus intelligatur, There || ones-" A very little share of that σropyn, or natural is, perhaps, scarce any passage of Scripture which affection, which so strongly exerts itself in most is less understood, "seems to have proved beyond other creatures, is observable in the ostrich for upon dispute," says Dr. Dodd, "that the word rendered the least distant noise, or trivial occasion, she forsakes peacocks," ", renanim, "signifies ostriches, and her eggs, or her young ones, to which, perhaps, she the following description entirely agrees with that never returns; or if she does, it may be too late opinion. Mr. Heath renders the verse, The wing either to restore life to the one, or preserve the lives of the ostrich is triumphantly expanded, though the of the other. Agreeably to this account, the Arabs strong pinion be the portion of the stork and the meet sometimes with whole nests of the eggs undisfalcon. Dr. Shaw renders the verse, The wing of turbed: some of which are sweet and good; others the ostrich is quivering, or expanded, the very are addle and corrupted; others, again, have their feathers and plumage of the stork; and he observes, young ones of different growths, according to the that the warming the eggs in the dust, or sand, is time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken by by incubation. In commenting on these verses it the dam. They more often meet a few of the little may be observed, says the doctor, that when the ones, no bigger than well-grown pullets, half-starved, ostrich is full grown, the neck, particularly of the straggling and moaning about, like so many dismale, which before was almost naked, is now very tressed orphans for their mother. And in this manbeautifully covered with red feathers. The plumage ner the ostrich may be said to be hardened against likewise upon the shoulders, the back, and some her young ones as though they were not hers; her parts of the wings, from being hitherto of a dark labour, in hatching, and attending them so far, being grayish colour, becomes as black as jet, while thein vain, without fear, or the least concern of what rest of the feathers retain an exquisite whiteness. They are, as described verse 13, the very feathers and plumage of the stork; that is, they consist of such black and white feathers as the stork, called from thence hapyos, 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 upon the lesser, 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 vigour whenever it is pursued."

Verses 14, 15. Which leaveth her eggs in the earth-The ostrich lays from thirty to fifty eggs. Elian mentions more than eighty; but I never heard of so large a number. The first egg is deposited in the centre; the rest are placed as conveniently as possible round it. In this manner she is said to lay,

becomes of them afterward. This want of affection is also recorded Lam. iv. 3, The daughter of my people, says the prophet, is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness."

Verse 17. Because God hath deprived her of wisdom-The want of natural affection to her young is not the only reproach due to the ostrich. "She is likewise inconsiderate and foolish in her private capacity, particularly in her 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 even iron." When I was at Oran,” proceeds Dr. Shaw, "I saw one of these birds swallow, without any seeming uneasiness or inconvenience, several leaden bullets, as they were thrown upon the floor, scorching hot from the mould." A second instance of her folly is, that, to secure herself, she will thrust her head into the shrubs, though her body,

The Lord answers Job.

JOB.

Of the ostrich and horse. A. M. 2484. 18 What time she lifteth up herself || his strength: he goeth on to meet A. M. 2484. on high, she scorneth the horse and the armed men. 22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted;

B. C. 1520.

B. C. 1520.
his rider.
19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast neither turneth he back from the sword.
thou clothed his neck with thunder?

23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glit

20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grass-tering spear and the shield.
hopper? the glory of his nostrils is terri-
ble.

24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; neither believeth he that it is the

21 5 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in sound of the trumpet.

5

Heb. terrors. Or, His feet dig.

Jer. viii. 6.

6 Heb. the armour.

which is of a great height, be exposed. As a third feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, instance, it is said that she is sometimes taken by a are no less insensible of fatigue." We have menstratagem of the sportsman, who clothes himself with || tioned their great bulk, as unfitting them for flying, the skin of an ostrich, putting his right hand into the and shall here observe, from the Encyclop. Brit., skin of the neck, and moving it in the same manner as that the "ostrich is, without doubt, the largest of all the ostrich does its own neck, and with his left hand birds, being nearly eight feet in length, and, when strowing some seed from a bag that hangs down; by standing upright, from six to eight feet in height. this means he entices the bird, and throws it into the We are told, in the Gentleman's Magazine, (vol. valleys. A fourth is, the leaving her eggs, as has been xx. page 356,) that two ostriches were shown in just mentioned. A fifth instance is taken from the London in the year 1750, the male of which was ten shape of its body, having a little head, and scarce | feet in height, and weighed 3 cwt. and 1 gr. But, any brain: hence historians tell us, that the Emperor though usually seven feet high from the top of the Heliogabalus, to gratify his luxurious taste, together | head to the ground, from the back it is only four, so with other delicacies, such as the combs of cocks, that the head and neck are above three feet long. the tongues of pheasants and nightingales, the eggs One of the wings, without the feathers, is a foot and of partridges, the heads of parrots and peacocks, the a half; and being stretched out with the feathers is brains of thrushes, had likewise served up to him, at three feet." one entertainment, the heads of six hundred ostriches Verses 19-25. Hast thou given the horse strength? for the sake of the brains; because, being so very-Hebrew, 1, geburah, his fortitude, the cour small, a less number would not have been sufficient to make a dish. See Chappelow.

Verse 18. What time she lifteth up herself on high -Or, as Dr. Shaw more properly renders this clause, When she raiseth herself up to run away, namely, from her pursuers. For which purpose she stretches out her neck and legs, both which are very tall, lifts up her head and body, and spreads her wings; she scorneth the horse and his rider-She despiseth them on account of her greater swiftness; for though she cannot fly, because of her great bulk, yet by the aid of her wings she runs so fast, that horsemen cannot overtake her. Xenophon says, Cyrus's horsemen, who were able to run down wild asses

age and generous confidence for which the horse
is highly commended. The reader will observe,
that all the great and sprightly images which
thought can form of this noble animal are expressed
in this paragraph with such force and vigour of style
as (to use the words of an elegant writer) "would
have given the great wits of antiquity new laws for
the sublime, had they been acquainted with these
writings." It is true, in the third book of Virgil's
Georgics, we find a fine description of a horse, chiefly
copied from Homer, of which Dryden has given us
the following admirable translation:
The fiery courser, when he hears from far
Pricks up his ears; and, trembling with delight,
The sprightly trumpets and the shouts of war,
Shifts place, and paws, and hopes the promised fight.
On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined
Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.
His horny hoofs are jetty black and round;
He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.
His chine is double; starting with a bound
Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow;

and wild goats, could never take ostriches. See Bochart. When these birds are surprised," says Dr. Shaw, "by persons coming suddenly upon them, while 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. They afford them an opportunity only of He bears his rider headlong on the foe. admiring at a distance their extraordinary agility, and the stateliness, likewise, of their motions, the But, if the reader will compare with this the present richness of their plumage, and the great propriety passage, he will find that, "under all the disadvanthere was of ascribing to them an expanded, quiver-tages of having been written in a language little ing wing. Nothing, certainly, can be more beauti- understood; of being expressed in phrases peculiar ful and entertaining than such a sight. The wings, to a part of the world whose manner of thinking by their repeated, though unwearied, vibrations, and speaking seems strange to us; and, above all, equally serving them for sails and oars, while their of appearing in a prose translation, it is so transcen

2

dently above the heathen description, that hereby neither turneth he back from the sword-Or, because we may perceive how faint and languid the images of the sword, or, for fear of the sword, as 1, are which are formed by mortal authors, when com- mippenee chereb, often signifies. The quiver ratpared with that which is figured, as it were, just as it tleth against him—The quiver is here put for the appears in the eye of the Creator. He will observe arrows contained in it, which, being shot against the in particular, that, whereas the classical poets chiefly horse and rider, make a rattling noise. He swallowendeavour to paint the outward figure, lineaments, eth the ground with rage—He is so full of rage and and motions, the sacred poet makes all the beauties fury that he not only chams his bridle, but is ready to flow from an inward principle in the creature he to tear and devour the very ground on which he describes, and thereby gives great spirit and vivacity goes. Or rather, his eagerness to start, and his rage to his description." Hast thou clothed his neck with for the fight, are such that he, as it were, devoureth thunder?-A strong metaphor to denote force and the intermediate space, and can scarcely wait for terror. "Homer and Virgil mention nothing about the signal for the battle, because of his impatience. the neck of the horse, but his mane; the sacred au- Neither believeth he, &c.—He is so pleased with the thor, by the bold figure of thunder, not only expresses approach of the battle, and the sound of the trumpet the shaking of that remarkable beauty in the horse, calling to engage in it, that he can scarcely believe, and the flakes of hair, which naturally suggest the for gladness, that the trumpet hath sounded. Or, idea of lightning; but likewise the violent agitation the words may be interpreted, He cannot stand still and force of the neck, which, in the oriental tongues, when the trumpet soundeth: his rider can hardly rehad been flatly expressed by a metaphor less bold || strain or keep him still, through his eagerness to run than this." Canst thou make him afraid as a grass- to the fight. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! hopper?-Which is easily affrighted, and chased-An expression of joy and alacrity, declared by his away by the least noise of a man. But, as the verb proud neighings. He smelleth the battle afar off — vy, ragnash, here used, signifies to prance or move He perceiveth, and has a kind of instinctive sense briskly, as well as to fear and tremble, many prefer of the battle at some distance, either of place or time; rendering the clause, Hast thou made him to move || the thunder of the captains-The loud and joyful like a grasshopper? or, rather, like a locust, as clamour begun by the commanders, and continued 77, arbeh, is generally translated. Thus S. Jarchi by the soldiers, when they are ready to join battle, and Bochart, An feciti ut moveretur sicut locusta? and when, with terrific shouts, they are marching Is it to be ascribed to thee that the horse hath such to the attack. All these expressions, "He rejoiceth particular motions, leaping and prancing as the lo- in his strength-He mocketh at fear-Neither becusts do? Hence the saying, common among the lieveth he that it is the sound of the trumpet-He Arabians, The horse acts the locust. The expression saith among the trumpets, Ha! ha!-are signs of contains a two-fold beauty, as it not only marks the courage, flowing, as was said before, from an inward courage of this animal, by asking if he can be principle. His docility is elegantly painted in his affrighted, but likewise raises a noble image of his being unmoved at the rattling quiver, the glittering swiftness, intimating that, if that were possible, he spear, and the shield. He swalloweth the ground, would bound away, with the nimbleness of the is an expression of prodigious swiftness, in use among locust or grasshopper. The glory of his nostrils is the Arabians, Job's countrymen, at this day: it is the terrible-Hebrew, 177, hod nachro eimah,|| boldest and noblest of images for swiftness. The literally, The majesty, or magnificence, of his snort- Latins have something like it; but it is not easy to ing is terror. Thus Jer. viii. 16, The snorting of find any thing that comes so near it as Pope's lines his horses was heard, the whole land trembled at the in his Windsor Forest: sound of the neighing of his strong ones. "This is more strong and concise than that of Virgil, which yet is the noblest line which was ever written without inspiration:

"Th' impatient courser pants in every vein,

And, pawing, seems to beat the distant plain;
Hills, vales, and floods, appear already cross'd,
And, ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost."
See Guardian, No. 86, and Lowth's Prelectiones 34.

Collectumque premens, volvit sub naribus ignem.
And in his nostrils rolls collected fire."
Verse 26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom ?—So
He paweth in the valley-Hebrew, he diggeth; strongly, constantly, unweariedly, and swiftly. Thu-
through courage and wantonness, he cannot stand anus mentions a hawk which flew from London to
still, but is continually beating, and, as it were, dig- Paris in a night; and it was on account of the re-
ging up the earth with his feet. And rejoiceth-markable swiftness of the hawk that the Egyptians
Glories, manifests great pride and complacency; in
his strength. He goeth on to meet the armed men
-He goes on with great readiness and undaunted
courage to meet the weapons that oppose him. He
mocketh at fear-At all instruments and objects of
terror: he despises what other creatures dread;

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

JOB.

CHAPTER XL.

Job humbles himself before God, 1-5. God challenges him to vie with him, in justice, power, majesty, and dominion over the proud, 6-14. And gives an instance of his power in the behemoth, 15–24.

A. M. 2184. MOREOVER, the LORD answered