Job 39:30
in Job 39His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Her young ones also suck up blood: And where the slain are, there is she.
KJV
Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHer young ones suck up blood. And wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present. 104. As if it were plainly said; She herself indeed feeds on the contemplation of His Godhead, but because her hearers cannot understand the mysteries of the Godhead, they are satiated with hearing of the blood of the Lord Crucified. For to suck up blood, is to reverence the weaknesses of the Lord's Passion.
This site's exposition
Does the hawk take flight by your understanding
on Job 39:26-30
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown find the proverb of the last line, “where the slain are, there he is”, on the Lord's lips at Matthew 24:28. The chapter asks whether a man who cannot govern a doe's labor or a hawk's flight is fit to judge God's government of the world.
This site's exposition
His young ones feast on blood
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain the feast of blood. The young are too weak for flesh, so they feed on the blood of prey the parent brings. They count the vulture, which feeds on the slain, in the eagle's kind.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 3 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Hence in Job: "Does the eagle fly up at your command to pass the night at his lofty nest?" And later: "Where the slain are, there is he." First, he speaks wonders of the eagle, and then humble things; and so it is with rapture. …
The eagle is powerful in game like the lion among quadrupeds. To show this he says, "His young suck up blood," that is, of the living animals which the eagle carries back to the nest. The eagle eats not only live animals, like falcons and …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Her young ones also suck up blood,.... As well as herself, being brought up to it by her. The eagle cares not for water, but drinks the blood of her prey; and so her young ones after her, as naturalists report (w). And Aelianus says (x) the same of the hawk, that it eats no seeds, but devours flesh and drinks blood, and nourishes her young ones with the same. And where the slain are, there is she; where there has been a battle, and carcasses left on the field, the eagles will gather to them.
God here shows Job what little acquaintance he had with the untamed creatures that run wild in the deserts and live at large, but are the care of the divine Providence. The wild goats and the hinds. That which is taken notice of concerning them is the bringing forth and bringing up of their young ones.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Her young ones also suck up blood - The eagle does not feed her young with carrion, but with prey newly slain, so that they may suck up blood. Where the slain are, there is she - These words are quoted by our Lord. “Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together,” Mat 24:28 (note). It is likely, however, that this was a proverbial mode of expression; and our Lord adapts it to the circumstances of the Jewish people, who were about to fall a prey to the Romans. See the notes there.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Quoted partly by Jesus Christ (Mt 24:28). The food of young eagles is the blood of victims brought by the parent, when they are still too feeble to devour flesh. slain--As the vulture chiefly feeds on carcasses, it is included probably in the eagle genus.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Her young ones also suck up blood - The word used here (יעלעוּ ye‛âl‛û) occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. It is supposed to mean, to sup up greedily; referring to the fact that the young ones of the eagle devour blood voraciously. They are too feeble to devour the flesh, and hence, they are fed on the blood of the victim. The strength of the eagle consists in the beak, talons, and wings; and such is their power, that they are able to convey animals of considerable size, alive, to their places of abode. They often bear away in this manner, lambs, kids, and the young of the gazelle. Three instances, at least, are known, where they have carried off children. In the year 1737, in Norway, a boy upward of two years of age was carried off by an eagle in the sight of his parents. Anderson, in his history of Iceland, asserts that in that island children of four and five years of age have experienced the same fate; and Ray mentions that in one of the Orkheys an infant of a year old was seized in the talons of an eagle, and conveyed about four miles to its eyry. “Edin. Ency.” The principal food of the young eagle is blood. The proof of this fact may be seen in Scheutzer’s “Phys. Sac., in loc.” And where the slain are, there is she - Hebrew, “the slain;” referring perhaps primarily to a field of battle - where horses, camels, and human beings, lie in confusion. It is not improbable that the Savior had this passage in view when he said, speaking of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together; “Mat 24:28. Of the fact that they thus assemble, there can be no doubt. The “argument” in proof of the wisdom and majesty of the Almighty in these references to the animal creation, is derived from their strength, their instincts, and their special habits. […]
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאֶפְרֹחָ֥יו | veefrochov | and young ones its | H667 → | |
| יְעַלְעוּ־ | yealu- | they drink | H5966 → | |
| דָ֑ם | dam | blood | H1818 → | |
| וּבַאֲשֶׁ֥ר | uvaasher | and at where | H834 → | 5497 times |
| חֲ֝לָלִ֗ים | chalalim | [those] slain [are] | H2491 → | |
| שָׁ֣ם | sham | [is] there | H8033 → | 834 times |
| הֽוּא׃ פ | hu' | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
וְאֶפְרֹחָ֥יוand young ones its
veefrochovH667 →
יְעַלְעוּ־they drink
yealu-H5966 →
דָ֑םblood
damH1818 →
וּבַאֲשֶׁ֥רand at where
uvaasherH834 →5497 times
חֲ֝לָלִ֗ים[those] slain [are]
chalalimH2491 →
שָׁ֣ם[is] there
shamH8033 →834 times
הֽוּא׃ פit
hu'H1931 →1879 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
Matthew 24:28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
it leads to
- Luke 17:37
“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
- Job 39:27–30
Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
- Amos 9:1–4
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will…
- Deuteronomy 28:49
The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
- Luke 17:37
Through
Luke 17:37“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
it leads to
- Matthew 24:28
Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
- Job 39:29–30
From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.
- Zechariah 13:8–9
And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it.
- Revelation 19:17–18
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
- Matthew 24:28
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 3; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and 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.