From the wonders of inanimate creation above, beneath, and around, Jehovah now turns to the phenomena of the animal kingdom. The lion, the raven, the wild goat or ibex, the wild ass, the wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and the eagle successively appear, to convince of ignorance and powerlessness him who ventures to sit in judgment on God's doings.
Dost thou hunt prey for the lioness,
And fill the desire of the young lions,
When they couch in dens—abide in the covert in ambush?
Who provideth for the raven his meat,
When his young cry to God [El]—wander without food?
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bear?
Watchest thou over the calving of the hinds?
Numberest thou the months that they fulfill?
And knowest then the time of their bearing?
They bow themselves, they bring forth their young,
They cast away their pangs.
Their young fatten, grow up in the desert,
They go forth, and return to them no more!
Who sent forth the wild ass free,
And who loosed the bands of the fleeing one?
Whose house I made the desert, and his abode the salt land.
He laugheth at the tumult of the city,
The cries of the driver he heareth not,
The range of mountains [is] his pasture,
And he seeketh after every green thing.
Will the wild ox choose to serve thee?
Will he pass the night over thy crib?
Dost thou bind the wild ox in the furrow of his cord?
Doth he harrow the valleys after thee?
Wilt thou trust him because his strength [is] great?
And wilt thou leave unto him thy labor?
Dost thou trust him that he will bring back thy seed,
And gather up thy threshing-floor?
The wing of the ostrich waveth joyously:
Is it the pinion and plumage of the, stork?
For she leaveth on the earth her eggs,
And warmeth [them] on the dust,
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them,
And that the wild beast may trample them.
She (lit. he) is hard on her young [as if ] not for
her;
Without fear her labor is in vain;
For God hath caused her to forget wisdom,
And hath not given her a portion in understanding;
What time she lifteth herself up on high,
She laugheth at the horse, and at his rider.
Dost thou give to the horse might?
Dost thou clothe his neck with quivering mane?
Dost thou make him leap like the, locust?
The majesty of his snorting is terrible.
They paw in the valley, and he exulteth in strength;
He goeth forth to meet the armor.
He laugheth at fear, and trembleth not,
Nor turneth back from the face of the sword.
Against him rattleth the quiver, the blade of spear and lance.
With lash and rage he swalloweth the ground,
And stayeth not fixed when the trumpet soundeth.
Among the trumpets he saith, Aha!
And from afar he scenteth the battle,
The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting.
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
And spread his pinions to the south
Doth the eagle mount up at thy bidding,
And build his nest on high?
He inhabiteth a rock, and lodgeth
On the tooth of a rock, and a fastness.
Thence he espieth food; afar his eyes behold, And his young ones lap blood,
And where the slain [are], there [is] he.
If the king of wild beasts is first named, it is not without purpose that the raven follows. The contrast is marked; but Jehovah cared for both. He is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Was Job the one to hunt prey for the lioness, and fill the craving of her young, themselves soon enough learning to catch the prey, and springing from the thickets where they couched? Was it for Job to provide the raven with meat Did not the cry of its young enter the ear of God, as they wandered, voracious, without food? Again, was it Job that looked after the mountain goat, or kept watch over the hinds at a time most critical for themselves and their offspring? Assuredly there is not one whose months El does not count, whose time of bearing He does not know. He that reckons the hairs of our heads, sees every sparrow that falls, and has His part in all, as the Savior let the trembling disciples know for their encouragement, as they went forth at His word. So here Jehovah shows that, if man boasts His scanty knowledge of beasts and birds, and counts their classification science, it is His province, not man's, to enter into and watch over the need of every one, the most removed from human habitation, no less than those whose croakings disturb man's ease, it may be, but are ever before God, who has made them all, and provides for each as a faithful Creator.
Think of the blindness of rationalism, which, in so magnificent a disproof of human presumption and complaint of God, sees no more than Job's ignorance of the time a hind, or other animal named, takes in gestation! Clearly it is a question here, not of zoological lore, but of that beneficent care which accompanies perfect knowledge of every creature. If God exercised such vigilant oversight, according to the goodness and wisdom which made them, over young or old, beast or bird, even the least familiar or most inaccessible, was it not for Job to listen and learn, instead of darkening counsel by words without knowledge? And certainly His ways with saints are incomparably deeper than His dealings with the mere animal realm. Yet there we see everywhere His sovereign disposal. He, not man, has made them what they are, and ordered their habits and their habitations. If He has given some to be the burden-bearers of man, He has given others immunity from any such servitude, as the wild ass, with its house in the desert, and its dwelling-place in the steppe, where a city's tumult, and a driver's cries are unknown, and the mountain range he can reconnoiter, as he searches out every green thing.
Nor can Job, or any other, pretend, whatever their thoughts or talk, that they can reduce the wild ox to the purposes of man in ordinary labor, or to submit quietly to his control or care. His strength might be invaluable; but He who made all, and gave Adam dominion over fish and fowl, cattle, all the earth, and every reptile, did not bind the wild ox to the furrow of his cord, nor to harrow after Job; nor did He ask Job to leave labors of the field to his responsibility, whether at the beginning, or at the end.
And as to the ostrich, let its wing speed ever so joyously, still God is sovereign here, let man reason as he may, and makes it to differ as widely as he can conceive, from the pinion and plumage of the stork, whose care for its offspring is proverbially familiar. No bird is, on the contrary, so stolid as she, where natural instincts are usually strongest, none less cautious. But this is not without God, who takes in more than man can grasp, and is pleased, of His own will and wisdom, to deprive the ostrich of wisdom, though He has also endowed her with a swiftness which mocks the swiftest horse with its rider. Let man, then, mark, learn, and worship, and not set up to judge God or murmur. This were folly more guilty than the racer's of the desert, as well as irreverence and rebellion.
From this Jehovah turns to the war-horse, described in a way worthy of Him who spoke, which makes the more vivid impression, as here He comes down to where we might be disposed to think ourselves at home. Other animals might be more or less strange and distant; but though man, and Arab man above all, might conceive himself to have some title to speak of what he most loves to use for use or ease, for pride or love, what had he to do with giving the horse its might or fluttering mane? its locust-like bound? the glory of its snorting, a terror to others? its pawing, impatient of restraint, and exulting in its strength? or its undismayed advance, no matter what the clang or t the flash of arms? See with impetuous rage it seems to bite the ground, so that it is not to be held in when the trumpets sound, and it answers each blast with Aha as it scents the fight from afar, and the thunder and the shouting of the chiefs.
Next, was it man that taught the hawk to soar, and spread his wings to the land of Teman? Was it he who bade the eagle mount up, and build his house on the high rock, whence his piercing eye descries food, or gives his young ones to lap blood? or himself to be where the slain are found?