Job 39:20
in Job 39Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible.
KJV
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
9 notes on this verseWilt thou rouse him as the locusts? 45. By the name 'locusts' is sometimes signified the Jewish people, sometimes the converted Gentiles, sometimes the tongue of flatterers, but sometimes, by comparison, the Resurrection of the Lord, or the life of preachers. For, that locusts express the people of the Jews, the life of John points out to us; of whom it is written; He did eat locusts and wild honey. [Mark 1, 6] For John proclaims, even in the kind of his food, Him, Whom he foretells with the authority of prophecy.
This site's exposition
Do you give strength to the horse
on Job 39:19-25
The war horse is the one creature in this list that serves man. Where the King James reads thunder, Delitzsch takes the Hebrew of the quivering mane. Henry draws the point that the courage men prize in battle is lent by the God whose rule Job has questioned.
This site's exposition
make him leap like a locust
The horse leaps like a locust, arbeh in Hebrew, Barnes notes, the locust in its swarms. Joel 2:4 makes the same comparison of locusts and war horses. Their heads are so alike that Italians call the locust little horse.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Another property of a horse is his powerful jump which is contrary to the behavior of many quadrupeds, and so he says, "Will you make him leap," raising him up high, "like the locusts," which move by jumping. Another property of the horse is his …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
Wilt thou rouse him as the locusts? [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 75. Every one, who follows God, is, at his beginning, roused as a locust, because, though in some of his doings he clings to the earth, like the locusts, with bended knees, yet in some of them he raises himself up into the air with expanded wings. For the beginnings of conversions are a mixture of good and evil habits, whilst both the new life is carried on in intention, and the old life is still retained from habit. But we are so much the less injured by the evil being meanwhile mixed up with us, the more we daily contend against it without ceasing. Nor does the fault, whose evil habit our mind anxiously opposes, claim us any longer as its own. And therefore, worldly pursuits injure us less, when beginners; because they are forbidden to remain any longer within us. Accordingly, because the Lord mercifully tolerates some weaknesses in us in the very beginning of our conversion, that He may lead us at length to heavenly things, by perfection, He rouses us at first as locusts; because though He raises us aloft by the flight of virtue, He yet despairs not at our falling by worldly doing. It follows; The glory of his nostrils is terror. 76. Because a thing, which is not seen, is detected by its smell, by the word 'nostrils' are expressed, not improperly, the thoughts of our hope; by which we already foresee in hope the coming judgment, though we as yet behold it not with our eyes. But every one, who begins to live righteously, on hearing that the righteous are, by the last judgment, summoned to the kingdom, is joyful; but because he considers that some evils are still remaining within him, he dreads the approach of this very judgment, about which he is beginning to rejoice. For he beholds his life to be a mixture of good and evil, and confuses his thoughts, in a measure, with hope and fear. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Perhaps there might be at that time, and in that country, a more stately breed of horses than any we have now. That he is very fierce and furious in battle, and charges with an undaunted courage, though he pushes on in imminent danger of his life. (1.) See how frolicsome he is (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? - Or, rather, “as a locust” - כארבה kā'arbeh. This is the word which is commonly applied to the locust considered as gregarious, or as appearing in great numbers (from רבה râbâh, “to be multiplied”). On the variety of the species of locusts, see Bochart “Hieroz.” P. ii. Lib. iv. c. 1ff The Hebrew word here rendered “make afraid” (רעשׁ râ‛ash) means properly “to be moved, to be shaken,” and hence, to tremble, to be afraid.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
make . . . afraid--rather, "canst thou (as I do) make him spring as the locust?" So in Joe 2:4, the comparison is between locusts and war-horses. The heads of the two are so similar that the Italians call the locusts cavaletta, "little horse." nostrils--snorting furiously.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הְֽ֭תַרְעִישֶׁנּוּ | hetarishenu | ¿ do you make leap it | H7493 → | |
| כָּאַרְבֶּ֑ה | kaarbeh | like <the> locust | H697 → | |
| ה֖וֹד | hod | [the] majesty of | H1935 → | 24 times |
| נַחְר֣וֹ | nachro | snorting its | H5170 → | |
| אֵימָֽה׃ | ʾeimah | [is] terror | H367 → | 17 times |
הְֽ֭תַרְעִישֶׁנּוּ¿ do you make leap it
hetarishenuH7493 →
כָּאַרְבֶּ֑הlike <the> locust
kaarbehH697 →
ה֖וֹד[the] majesty of
hodH1935 →24 times
נַחְר֣וֹsnorting its
nachroH5170 →
אֵימָֽה׃[is] terror
ʾeimahH367 →17 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Joel 2:5With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.
it leads to
- Revelation 9:9
They also had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.
- Isaiah 5:24
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected…
- Isaiah 30:30
And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
- Revelation 9:9
Through
Jeremiah 8:16The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city…
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:28
But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—
- Judges 5:22
Then the hooves of horses thundered—the mad galloping of his stallions.
- Judges 18:29
They named it Dan, after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city was formerly named Laish.
- Jeremiah 4:15–16
For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
- 1 Corinthians 10:26
for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:28
About Job

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
