Job 39:26
in Job 39Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soareth, And stretcheth her wings toward the south?
KJV
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
4 notes on this verseDoth the hawk get feathers by thy wisdom, stretching her wings toward the South? 92. That the hawk casts off its old feathers every year, as the new grow up, and gets a plumage without intermission, hardly any one is ignorant. But that time of plumage, when it is clothed in the nest, is not here spoken of; because, namely, at that time, being doubtless yet but young, it is not able to stretch its wings towards the South. But that annual plumage is described, which is renewed, as the old feathers become loose.
This site's exposition
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom
on Job 39:26-30
The catalogue closes looking up: the hawk's southward instinct at the turning of the year and the eagle nesting on the crag, seeking prey with eyes that behold afar off, all without Job's wisdom or command. The last line refuses to prettify what the bird is, her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she, and JFB notes that the same grim proverb returns in the Lord's own mouth at Matthew 24:28. The whole chapter has asked one question in six portraits: whether the man who cannot govern a hind's calving or a hawk's flight is fit to arraign the government of the world.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,.... With so much swiftness, steadiness, and constancy, until she has seized her prey. The Vulgate Latin version and some others read, "does she become feathered", or "begin to have feathers?" and so Bochart: either when first fledged; or when, as it is said (d) she casts her old feathers and gets new ones, and this every year. Now neither her flight nor her feathers, whether at one time or the other, are owing to men, but to the Lord, who gives both; and stretch her wings towards the south?
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom - The hawk is called נץ nets, from its swiftness in darting down upon its prey; hence its Latin name, nisus, which is almost the same as the Hebrew. It may very probably mean the falcon, observes Dr. Shaw. The flight of a strong falcon is wonderfully swift. A falcon belonging to the Duke of Cleves flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock of near thirty miles in an hour.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲֽ֭מִבִּינָ֣תְךָ | hamibinatekha | ¿ from understanding your | H998 → | 38 times |
| יַֽאֲבֶר־ | yaaver- | does it soar | H82 → | |
| נֵ֑ץ | netz | a falcon | H5322 → | |
| יִפְרֹ֖שׂ | yifros | does it spread out? | H6566 → | 67 times |
| כְּנָפָ֣יו | kenafov | wings its | H3671 → | 109 times |
| לְתֵימָֽן׃ | leteiman | to [the] south | H8486 → |
הֲֽ֭מִבִּינָ֣תְךָ¿ from understanding your
hamibinatekhaH998 →38 times
יַֽאֲבֶר־does it soar
yaaver-H82 →
נֵ֑ץa falcon
netzH5322 →
יִפְרֹ֖שׂdoes it spread out?
yifrosH6566 →67 times
כְּנָפָ֣יוwings its
kenafovH3671 →109 times
לְתֵימָֽן׃to [the] south
leteimanH8486 →
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
Jeremiah 8:7Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
it leads to
- Isaiah 1:3
The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
- Jeremiah 5:4–5
Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
- Proverbs 6:6–8
Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.
- Isaiah 5:12
At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
- Isaiah 1:3
Through
Song of Solomon 2:12The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.
it leads to
- Isaiah 55:12
You will indeed go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
- Jeremiah 8:7
Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to…
- Psalms 148:7–13
Praise the LORD from the earth, all great sea creatures and ocean depths,
- Isaiah 55:12
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.