Job 39:8
in Job 39He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searcheth after every green thing.
KJV
The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
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This verse in Job 39
Commentary
11 notes on this verse[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST - continued] He looketh around on the mountains of His pasture. 78. Mountains we understand to be all the lofty ones of this world, who were swollen in their hearts with earthly loftiness. But since the Lord engrains even such, when converted, into the body of His Church, and, turning them from their former pride, transforms them into His own members, these are mountains of His pasture; doubtless, because He is satisfied with the conversion of the wandering, and the humility of the proud.
This site's exposition
Who set the wild donkey free
on Job 39:5-8
The wild donkey pictures a freedom Job knew. God names Himself the one who set him free, so the animal's liberty is a provision of God. Gill notes that “the salt flats” are salt land in the Hebrew, a country men call waste and God calls a home.
This site's exposition
He roams the mountains for pasture
The word for roams is yathur, which Barnes explains as a searching out, and then what the search finds. He cites Pallas, who saw the wild donkey keep to desolate hills. Aquinas adds that the mountains give it free range for pasture.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
He looks round on the mountains of his pasture. 64. The mountains of his pasture are the lofty contemplations of inward refreshment. For the more holy men abase themselves outwardly with contempt, the more abundantly are they supported within with the contemplation of revelations. Whence it is written; He hath disposed the ascents in his heart in the valley of tears; [Ps. 84, 6] because those, whom the valley of humility outwardly imprisons in tears, the ascent of contemplation elevates within. The mountains of pasture are also the lofty powers of angels: which therefore refresh us here by ministering and assisting, because they are fattened there with the inward dew of contemplation. And because, by the bounty of God, they protect us in every contest, they are well said to be beheld around. For we behold them present on all sides around us, by whose defence we are protected against our adversaries on every side. The mountains of pasture can be taken, still further, for the lofty sentences of Holy Scripture, of which it is said by the Psalmist; The high hills for the stags, [Ps. 104, 18] because those who know already how to make the leaps of contemplation, ascend the lofty summits of the Divine sentences, as the tops of mountains. And because the feeble cannot reach in truth to these tops, it is there rightly subjoined, the rock is a refuge for the urchins, because, namely, their understanding does not sublimely exercise the feeble, but faith alone in Christ humbly keeps them in. It follows; He searcheth after every green thing. 65. For parched in truth are all things, which, fashioned for a time, are dried up from the sweetness of the present life by the coming end, as if by the summer sun. But those are called green, which fade not away by any shortness of existence. […]
The other reason is because there he wanders more freely in search of pasture, and so he says, "He ranges the mountains for his pasture," since free access to different places to find his pasture lies open to him, and he receives the pastures themselves …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Commentary on Chapter XXXIX 4. Young ones - Notwithstanding their great weakness caused by their hard entrance into the world. Grow up - As with corn, that is, as if they were fed with corn.
The range of the mountains is his pasture,....
(2.) See how forward he is to engage: He goes on to meet the armed men, animated, not by the goodness of the cause, or the prospect of honour, but only by the sound of the trumpet, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting of the soldiers, which are as bellows to the fire of his innate courage, and make him spring forward with the utmost eagerness, as if he cried, Ha! ha!
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
(2.) Having no owner, he has no feeder, nor is any provision made for him, but he must shift for himself: The range of the mountains is his pasture, and a bare pasture it is; there he searches after here and there a green thing, as he can find it and pick it up; whereas the labouring asses have green things in plenty, without their searching for them.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The range of the mountains - The mountains and desert places are his peculiar places of pasture; and he lives on any thing that is green, or any kind of vegetable production.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The range of the mountains is his pasture - The word rendered “range” יתור yâthûr, means properly a “searching out,” and then that which is obtained by search. The word “range” expresses the idea with sufficient exactness. The usual range of the wild ass is the mountains. Pallas, who has given a full description of the habits of the Onager, or wild ass, states, that it, especially loves desolate hills as its abode. “Acts of the Society of Sciences of Petersburg,” for the year 1777.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְת֣וּר | yetur | it explores | H8446 → | |
| הָרִ֣ים | harim | mountains | H2022 → | 546 times |
| מִרְעֵ֑הוּ | mirehu | pasture its | H4829 → | |
| וְאַחַ֖ר | veachar | and after | H310 → | 715 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יָר֣וֹק | yarok | green plant | H3387 → | |
| יִדְרֽוֹשׁ׃ | yidroosh | it searches | H1875 → | 164 times |
יְת֣וּרit explores
yeturH8446 →
הָרִ֣יםmountains
harimH2022 →546 times
מִרְעֵ֑הוּpasture its
mirehuH4829 →
וְאַחַ֖רand after
veacharH310 →715 times
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
יָר֣וֹקgreen plant
yarokH3387 →
יִדְרֽוֹשׁ׃it searches
yidrooshH1875 →164 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
3 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
Job 40:15Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.
it leads to
- Job 40:20
The hills yield him their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby.
- Psalms 104:14
He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
- Genesis 1:24–26
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
- Job 40:20
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); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXX; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.
