SEV Biblia, Chapter 39:13
¶ ¿Diste tú hermosas alas al pavo real, o alas y plumas al avestruz?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Job 39:13
Verse 13. The goodly wings unto the peacocks? ] I believe peacocks are not intended here; and the Hebrew word µynnr renanim should be translated ostriches; and the term hdysj chasidah, which we translate ostrich, should be, as it is elsewhere translated, stork; and perhaps the word hxn notsah, rendered here feathers, should be translated hawk, or pelican. The Vulgate has, Penna struthionis similis est pennis herodii et accipitris; "the feather of the ostrich is like to that of the stork and the hawk." The Chaldee has, "The wing of the wild cock, who crows and claps his wings, is like to the wing of the stork and the hawk." The Septuagint, not knowing what to make of these different terms, have left them all untranslated, so as to make a sentence without sense. Mr. Good has come nearest both to the original and to the meaning, by translating thus: - "The wing of the ostrich tribe is for flapping; But of the stork and falcon for flight." Though the wings of the ostrich, says he, cannot raise it from the ground, yet by the motion here alluded to, by a perpetual vibration, or flapping-by perpetually catching or drinking in the wind, (as the term hsl[n neelasah implies, which we render goodly,) they give it a rapidity of running beyond that possessed by any other animal in the world. Adanson informs us, that when he was at the factory in Padore, he was in possession of two tame ostriches; and to try their strength, says he, "I made a full-grown negro mount the smallest, and two others the largest. This burden did not seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first they went a pretty high trot; and, when they were heated a little, they expanded their wings, as if it were to catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness as to seem to be off the ground. And I am satisfied that those ostriches would have distanced the fleetest race-horses that were ever bred in England." As to hxn notsah, here translated falcon, Mr. Good observes, that the term naz is used generally by the Arabian writers to signify both falcon and hawk; and there can be little doubt that such is the real meaning of the Hebrew word; and that it imports various species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, gos-hawk, and sparrow-hawk. "The argument drawn from natural history advances from quadrupeds to birds; and of birds, those only are selected for description which are most common to the country in which the scene lies, and at the same time are most singular in their properties. Thus the ostrich is admirably contrasted with the stork and the eagle, as affording us an instance of a winged animal totally incapable of flight, but endued with an unrivalled rapidity of running, compared with birds whose flight is proverbially fleet, powerful, and persevering. Let man, in the pride of his wisdom, explain or arraign this difference of construction. "Again, the ostrich is peculiarly opposed to the stork and to some species of the eagle in another sense, and a sense adverted to in the verses immediately ensuing; for the ostrich is well known to take little or no care of its eggs, or of its young, while the stork ever has been, and ever deserves to be, held in proverbial repute for its parental tenderness. The Hebrew word hdysj chasidah, imports kindness or affection; and our own term stork, if derived from the Greek storgh, storge, as some pretend, has the same original meaning." - GOOD'S Job.
Matthew Henry Commentary
God inquires of Job concerning several animals. --In these questions the Lord continued to humble Job. In this chapte several animals are spoken of, whose nature or situation particularl show the power, wisdom, and manifold works of God. The wild ass. It is better to labour and be good for something, than to ramble and be goo for nothing. From the untameableness of this and other creatures, we may see, how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot giv law even to a wild ass's colt. The unicorn, a strong, stately, prou creature. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God challenges Jo to force him to it. It is a great mercy if, where God gives strengt for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, an reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do. Those gifts are no always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would no rather have the voice of the nightingale, than the tail of the peacock the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful feathers of the ostrich, which can neve rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? The descriptio of the war-horse helps to explain the character of presumptuou sinners. Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. When a man's heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way, by the violence of his appetites an passions, there is no making him fear the wrath of God, and the fata consequences of sin. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rocks; but I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, Jer 49:16. All these beautiful references to the works of nature, should teach us right view of the riches of the wisdom of Him who made and sustains all things. The want of right views concerning the wisdom of God, which i ever present in all things, led Job to think and speak unworthily of Providence __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
כנף 3671 רננים 7443 נעלסה 5965 אם 518 אברה 84 חסידה 2624 ונצה׃ 5133
