Job 38:39

Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?.... From meteors the Lord passes to animals, beasts, and birds, wherefore some here begin the thirty ninth chapter, which only treats of such; and he begins with

Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, From this verse to Job 39:30 the instincts of animals are discussed. Is it thou that givest it the instinct to hunt its prey?

Is it by thy care and providence that the lions, who live in desert places, are furnished with necessary provisions? This is justly mentioned as another wonderful work of God.

Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,Ver. 39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?] Heb. For the old lion, as Nehemiah 2:9, that cannot hunt for himself. Prey he must have, as being a very ravenous creature; but wilt thou provide it for him? With what great charge do princes maintain a few lions! But God maintaineth all, and all other creatures, Psalms 104:27-28; Psalms 145:15, putting it into the young lions to provide prey for the old; and causing these creatures to keep for most parts in the deserts, where they feed upon camels, and such as they can light upon. Plin. et Aristot. scribunt, Leones multa solida sine dissectu devorare. Ammianus Marcellinus writeth, that in Chaldea there are a huge number of lions, which were like enough to devour up both men and beasts throughout the country. But in addition he saith, that by reason of the store of water and mud thereof there breed yearly an innumerable company of gnats, whose property is to fly into the eye of the lion, as being a bright and orient thing, where, biting and stinging the lion, he teareth so fiercely with his claws, that he puts out his own eyes; and by that means many are drowned in the rivers, others starve for want of prey, and many the more easily killed by the inhabitants. Or fill the appetite of the young lions] Which is very greedy and insatiate. Some render it, Catervam, the troop or company of young lions. But God in mercy to mankind hath so disposed it, that as devouring creatures are more rare (the lioness seldom brings forth more than one in all her life), so they go not often by troops, but range alone seeking their prey.

(39) Wilt thou hunt the prey?—The new chapter ought to begin here with this verse, inasmuch as the animal creation now passes under review.

Verse 39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion?] Rather the lioness, or strong lion. Hast thou his instinct? Dost thou know the habits and haunts of such animals as he seeks for his food? Thou hast neither his strength, his instinct nor his cunning. In the best Hebrew Bibles, the thirty-ninth chapter begins with this verse, and begins properly, as a new subject now commences, relating to the natural history of the earth, or the animal kingdom; as the preceding chapter does to astronomy and meteorology.

Ch. Job 38:39—Ch. Job 39:30. The manifoldness of the Divine Mind as displayed in the world of animal life The instances chosen are the lion and the raven (Job 38:39-41); the wild goats and the hinds (ch. Job 39:1-4); the wild ass (Job 38:5-8; the wild ox (Job 38:9-12); the ostrich (Job 38:13-18); the war horse (Job 38:19-25); the hawk and the eagle (Job 38:26-30). These brilliant pictures from the animal world have the same purpose as those given before (Job 38:4-38) from inanimate nature; they make God to pass before the eye of Job. They exhibit the diversity of the animal creation, the strange dissimilarity of instinct and habit in creatures outwardly similar, the singular blending together of contradictory characteristics in the same creature, and the astonishing attributes and powers with which some of them are endowed; and all combines to illustrate the resources of mind and breadth of thought of Him who formed them and cares for them, the manifold play of an immeasurable intelligence and power in the world. Yet though each of these pictures utters the name of God with an increasing emphasis, and though the Poet presents them in the first instance that we may hear this name from them, it is evident that his own eye follows each of the creatures which he describes with a delighted wonder and love. The Poet felt like a later poet, He prayeth best who loveth best all things both great and small, For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. The words of Carlyle might be quoted, who says of the Book of Job and of these descriptions in particular, “so true every way; true eyesight and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual” (Heroes, Lect. ii), were it not that this writer’s raptures are so often founded on intellectual mistake and imperfect appreciation of facts, and are therefore, like all such ideal raptures, only nauseous.

Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? - The appeal here is to the instincts with which God has endowed animals, and to the fact that he had so made them that they would secure their own food.

Second division — JOB IS WITH THE ANIMAL WORLD, OF WHICH MAN IS THE HEAD AND MONARCH; WITH THE MYSTERY OF LIFE, ITS AND ; AND WITH THE AND VARIED LAWS OF THE WORLD OF , Job 38:39 to Job 39:30.First