Job 39:25
in Job 39At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar— the shouts of captains and the cry of war.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As oft as the trumpet soundeth he saith, Aha! And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
KJV
He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
11 notes on this verseWhen he heareth the trumpet, he saith, Vah. He smelleth the battle afar off, the exhortation of the captains, and the howling of the army. 69. By which words this also is plainly shewn, that, in this place, nothing is said by the Lord of the irrational horse. For a brute animal cannot say, 'Vah;' but while it is said to say that, which it is quite unable to say, it is pointed out whom it designates. For 'Vah' is a word of exultation.
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
the scent of battle from afar
Gill reads afar as distance in time. The horse senses from the preparations that battle is near, as Pliny said horses foretell a fight. Gregory the Dialogist argued that a brute cannot speak its joy, so the horse must stand for a holy preacher.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Rather, he is said to rejoice at the sound of the military trumpet, and so he says, "When he hears the trumpet, he exclaims: Hooray!" i.e., he shouts in exultation, for "Hooray" is an exclamation of exultation. Since all these things mentioned express the courage …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI · Written before 604.
proposed
When he heareth the trumpet, he saith, Vah. He smelleth the battle afar off, the exhortation of the captains, and the howling of the army. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 84. For their own good fortune has more fatally overthrown many, and a long-continued peace has rendered many slothful; and the unexpected enemy has struck them the more heavily, the more he has found them careless, from being long used to quiet. Whence holy men, when they observe that they are advancing in great prosperity of virtues, rejoice that they are exercised also with temptations, by a kind of adjustment of heavenly dispensation; because they guard the more firmly the glory received in their virtues, the more humbly they acknowledge their own infirmity, from being assaulted with the shock of temptation. The horse, therefore, says, 'Vah,' when he has heard the trumpet, because, namely, the warrior of God, when he beholds the force of temptation pressing on him, considering the benefit of the heavenly dispensation, is more firmly confident, from his very adversity. And the assaults of this adversity therefore do not overcome him, because they never attack him unexpectedly. For he marks long beforehand, from each circumstance, of what vice the assault is coming on. Whence it also follows; He smelleth the battle afar off. 85. For, to 'smell the battle afar off,' is to discern from preceding causes, what contests of vices succeed. For because, (as has been already frequently said,) a thing which is not seen, is discerned by its smell, to smell the battle afar off is to search out lurking wickedness, by the looking forward of our thoughts, as if by the breath of our nostrils. Of which power of scent the Lord rightly says in the praise of His Church, Thy nose is as the tower, which is in Libanus. [Cant. 7, 4] We distinguish also by the nose between odours and foul smells. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He saith among the trumpets, ha, ha,.... As pleased with the sound of them, rejoicing thereat, and which he signifies by neighing; and he smelleth the battle afar off; which respects not so much the distance of place as of time; he perceives beforehand that it is near, by the preparations making for it, and particularly by what follows; so Pliny (b) says of horses, they presage a fight.
How wonderfully are the brute-creatures fitted for and inclined to the services for which they were designed. (3.) See how fearless he is, how he despises death and the most threatening dangers, (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Ha, ha - An expression of joy and alacrity declared by his proud neighings. Thunder - The loud and joyful clamour begun by the commanders, and followed by the soldiers when they are ready to join battle.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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. xix. Our Saviour refers to this instinct of the eagle, Matt. xxiv. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha - The original is peculiarly emphatical: האח Heach! a strong, partly nasal, partly guttural sound, exactly resembling the first note which the horse emits in neighing. The strong, guttural sounds in this hemistich are exceedingly expressive: האח ומרחוק יריח מלחמה Heach! umerachok yariach milchamah; “Heach, for from afar he scenteth the battle.” The reader will perceive that Mr. Good has given a very different meaning to Job 39:20 from that in the present text, Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? by translating the Hebrew thus: - “Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow?” The word ארבה arbeh, which we translate locust or grasshopper, and which he derives from רבה rabah, the א aleph being merely formative, he says, “may as well mean an arrow as it does in Job 16:13, רביו rabbaiv, ‘His arrows fly around me.’” The verb רעש raash in the word התועישנו hatharishennu, “Canst thou make him afraid?’ he contends, “signifies to tremble, quiver, rush, launch, dart forth; and, taken in this sense, it seems to unite the two ideas of rapidity and coruscation.” This is the principal alteration which this learned man has made in the text. I shall conclude on this subject by giving Coverdale’s translation: Hast thou geven the horse his strength, or lerned him how to bow down his neck with feare; that he letteth himself be dryven forth like a greshopper, where as the stout neyenge that he maketh is fearfull? He breaketh the grounde with the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men. He layeth aside all feare, his stomach is not abated, neither starteth he aback for eny swerde. Though the qyvers rattle upon him, though the speare and shilde glistre: yet russheth he in fearsley, and beateth upon the grounde. […]
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha - That is,” When the trumpet sounds, his voice is heard “as if” he said, Aha - or said that he heard the sound calling him to the battle.” The reference is to the impatient neighing of the war horse about to rush into the conflict. And he smelleth the battle afar off - That is, he snuffs, as it were, for the slaughter.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּדֵ֤י | bedei | in [the] sufficiency of | H1767 → | |
| שֹׁפָ֨ר׀ | shofar | a horn | H7782 → | |
| יֹ֘אמַ֤ר | yomar | it says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| הֶאָ֗ח | heach | aha! | H1889 → | |
| וּֽ֭מֵרָחוֹק | umerachok | and from a distance | H7350 → | 84 times |
| יָרִ֣יחַ | yariach | it smells | H7306 → | |
| מִלְחָמָ֑ה | milchamah | battle | H4421 → | 320 times |
| רַ֥עַם | raam | [the] thunder of | H7482 → | |
| שָׂ֝רִים | sarim | commanders | H8269 → | 421 times |
| וּתְרוּעָֽה׃ | uteruah | and [the] battle-cry | H8643 → | 36 times |
בְּדֵ֤יin [the] sufficiency of
bedeiH1767 →
שֹׁפָ֨ר׀a horn
shofarH7782 →
יֹ֘אמַ֤רit says
yomarH559 →5305 times
הֶאָ֗חaha!
heachH1889 →
וּֽ֭מֵרָחוֹקand from a distance
umerachokH7350 →84 times
יָרִ֣יחַit smells
yariachH7306 →
מִלְחָמָ֑הbattle
milchamahH4421 →320 times
רַ֥עַם[the] thunder of
raamH7482 →
שָׂ֝רִיםcommanders
sarimH8269 →421 times
וּתְרוּעָֽה׃and [the] battle-cry
uteruahH8643 →36 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
Psalms 70:3May those who say, “Aha, aha!” retreat because of their shame.
it leads to
- Psalms 40:15
May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled at their own shame.
- Proverbs 24:17–18
Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
- Acts 1:18
(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.
- Psalms 40:15
Through
Ezekiel 36:2This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
- Ezekiel 25:3
Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord GOD, for this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was…
- Ezekiel 35:10
Because you have said, ‘These two nations and countries will be ours, and we will possess them,’ even though the LORD was there,
- Deuteronomy 32:13
Through
Ezekiel 26:2“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’
it leads to
- Isaiah 23:1–18
This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus.
- Jeremiah 25:22
all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea;
- Isaiah 23:1–18
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.