Job 39:19     Hast thou bestowed on the horse mettle?
Hast thou clothed his neck with the thunder flash

Job 39:20     Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow?
Terrible is the pomp of his nostrils

Job 39:21     He paweth in the valley, and exulteth.
Boldly he advanceth against the clashing host

Job 39:22     He mocketh at fear, and trembleth not:
Nor turneth he back from the sword

Job 39:23     Against him rattleth the quiver,
The glittering spear, and the shield

Job 39:24     With rage and fury he devoureth the ground;
And is impatient when the trumpet soundeth

Job 39:25     He exclaimeth among the trumpets, Aha!
And scenteth the battle afar off,
The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting

In the year 1713, a letter was sent to the Guardian, which makes No. 86 of that work, containing a critique on this description, compared with similar descriptions of Homer and Virgil. I shall give the substance of it here: -

The great Creator, who accommodated himself to those to whom he vouchsafed to speak, hath put into the mouths of his prophets such sublime sentiments and exalted language as must abash the pride and wisdom of man. In the book of Job, the most ancient poem in the world, we have such paintings and descriptions as I have spoken of in great variety. I shall at present make some remarks on the celebrated description of the horse, in that holy book; and compare it with those drawn by Homer and Virgil

Homer hath the following similitude of a horse twice over in the Iliad, which Virgil hath copied from him; at least he hath deviated less from Homer than Mr. Dryden hath from him: -

Ὡς δ ’ ὁτε τις στατος ἱππος, ακοστησας επι φατνη

Δεσμον απορῥηξας θειει πεδιοιο κροαινων

Ειωθως λουεσθαι εΰρῥειος ποταμοιο

Κυδιοων· ὑψου δε καρη εχει, αμοι δε χαιτα

Ωμοις αΐσσονται· ὁ δ ’ αγλαΐῃφι πεποιθω

Ῥιμφα ἑ γουνα φερει μετα τ ’ ηθεα και νομον ἱππων

Hom. Il. lib. vi., ver. 506; and lib. xv., ver. 263

Freed from his keepers, thus with broken rein

The wanton courser prances o’ er the plains

Or in the pride of youth o’ erleaps the mound

And snuffs the female in forbidden ground

Or seeks his watering in the well-known flood

To quench his thirst, and cool his fiery blood

He swims luxuriant in the liquid plain

And o’ er his shoulders flows his waving mane

He neighs, he snorts, he bears his head on high

Before his ample chest the frothy waters fly

Virgil’ s description is much fuller than the foregoing, which, as I said, is only a simile; whereas Virgil professes to treat of the nature of the horse: -

Virg. Georg. lib. iii., ver. 83

Which is thus admirably translated: -

The fiery courser, when he hears from fa

The sprightly trumpets, and the shouts of war

Pricks up his ears; and, trembling with delight

Shifts pace, and paws, and hopes the promised fight

On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined

Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind

His horny hoofs are jetty black and round

His chin is double: starting with a bound

He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground

Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow

He bears his rider headlong on the foe

Now follows that in the Book of Job, which, under all the disadvantages of having been written in a language little understood, of being expressed in phrases peculiar to a part of the world whose manner of thinking and speaking seems to us very uncouth; and, above all, of appearing in a prose translation; is nevertheless so transcendently above the heathen descriptions, that hereby we may perceive how faint and languid the images are which are formed by human authors, when compared with those which are figured, as it were, just as they appear in the eye of the Creator. God, speaking to Job, asks him: - [To do our translators as much justice as possible, and to help the critic, I shall throw it in the hemistich form, in which it appears in the Hebrew, and in which all Hebrew poetry is written.

Job 39:19    Hast thou given to the Horse strength?
Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder

Job 39:20    Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?
The glory of his nostrils is terrible

Job 39:21    He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in strength:
He goeth on to meet the armed men

Job 39:22    He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted:
Neither turneth he back from the sword

Job 39:23    Against him rattleth the quiver,
The glittering spear and the shield

Job 39:24    He swalloweth the ground with rage and fierceness:
Nor doth he believe that it is the sound of the trumpet

Job 39:25    He saith among the trumpets, Heach!
And from afar he scenteth the battle,
The thunder of the captains, and the shouting

Here are all the great and sprightly images that thought can form of this generous beast, expressed in such force and vigor of style as would have given the great wits of antiquity new laws for the sublime, had they been acquainted with these writings. I cannot but particularly observe that whereas the classical poets chiefly endeavor to paint the outward figure, lineaments, and motions, the sacred poet makes all the beauties to flow from an inward principle in the creature he describes; and thereby gives great spirit and vivacity to his description. The following phrases and circumstances are singularly remarkable: -

Job 39:19 Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder

Homer and Virgil mention nothing about the neck of the horse but his mane. The sacred author, by the bold figure of thunder, not only expresses the shaking of that remarkable beauty in the horse, and the flakes of hair, which naturally suggest the idea of lightning; but likewise the violent agitation and force of the neck, which in the oriental tongues had been flatly expressed by a metaphor less bold than this

Job 39:20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? - There is a twofold beauty in this expression, which not only marks the courage of this beast, by asking if he can be scared; but likewise raises a noble image of his swiftness, by insinuating that, if he could be frightened, he would bound away with the nimbleness of a grasshopper

The glory of his nostrils is terrible - This is more strong and concise than that of Virgil, which yet is the noblest line that was ever written without inspiration: -

Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.

And in his nostrils rolls collected fire

Geor. iii., ver. 85

Job 39:21    He rejoiceth in his strength

Job 39:22    He mocketh at fear

Job 39:24    Neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet

Job 39:25    He saith among the trumpets, Ha! ha

These are signs of courage, as I said before, flowing from an inward principle. There is a peculiar beauty in his not believing it is the sound of the trumpet: that is, he cannot believe it for joy; but when he is sure of it, and is among the trumpets, he saith, Ha! ha! He neighs, he rejoices. His docility is elegantly painted in his being unmoved at the rattling quiver, the glittering spear, and the shield, Job 39:23, and is well imitated by Oppian, - who undoubtedly read Job, as Virgil did, - in his Poem on Hunting: -

Πως μεν γαρ τε μαχαισιν αρηΐος εκλυεν ἱππο

Ηχον εγερσιμοθον δολιχων πολεμηΐον αυλων

Η πως αντα δεδορκεν ασκαρδαμυκτοισιν οπωπαι

Αιζηοισι λοχον πεπυκασμενον ὁπλιτησι

Και χαλκον σελαγευντα, και αστραπτοντα σιδηρον

Και μαθεν ευτε μενειν χρειω, ποτε δ ’ αυτις αρουειν

Oppian Cyneget, lib. i., ver. 206

Now firm the managed war-horse keeps his ground

Nor breaks his order though the trumpet sound

With fearless eye the glittering host surveys

And glares directly at the helmet’ s blaze

The master’ s word, the laws of war, he knows

And when to stop, and when to charge the foes

He swalloweth the ground, Job 39:24, is an expression for prodigious swiftness in use among the Arabians, Job’ s countrymen, to the present day. The Latins have something like it: -

Latumque fuga consumere campum

Nemesian

In flight the extended champaign to consume

Carpere prata fuga.

Virg. Georg. III., Ver. 142

In flight to crop the meads

When, in their fight, the champaign they have snatch’ d

No track is left behind

It is indeed the boldest and noblest of images for swiftness; nor have I met with any thing that comes so near it as Mr. Pope’ s, in Windsor Forest: -

Th’ impatient courser pants in every vein,

And pawing, seems to beat the distant plain

Hills, vales, and floods, appear already cross’ d

And ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost

He smelleth the battle afar off, and what follows about the shouting, is a circumstance expressed with great spirit by Lucan: -

So when the ring with joyful shouts resounds

With rage and pride th’ imprison’ d courser bounds

He frets, he foams, he rends his idle rein

Springs o’ er the fence, and headlong seeks the plain

This judicious and excellent critique has left me little to say on this sublime description of the horse: I shall add some cursory notes only. In Job 39:19 we have the singular image, clothed his neck with thunder. How thunder and the horse’ s neck can be well assimilated to each other, I confess I cannot see. The author of the preceding critique seems to think that the principal part of the allusion belongs to the shaking of this remarkable beauty (the mane) in a horse; and the flakes of hair, which naturally suggest the idea of lightning. I am satisfied that the floating mane is here meant. The original is רעמה ramah , which Bochart and other learned men translate as above. How much the mane of a horse shaking and waving in the wind adds to his beauty and stateliness, every one is sensible; and the Greek and Latin poets, in their description of the horse, take notice of it. Thus Homer: -

- Αμφι δε χαιται

Ωμοις αΐσσονται

Iliad vi., ver. 509

"His mane dishevell’ d o’ er his shoulders flies.

And Virgil: -

Luduntque per colla, per armos

Aen. xi., ver. 497

The verb רעם raam signifies to toss, to agitate; and may very properly be applied to the mane, for reasons obvious to all. Virgil has seized this characteristic in his fine line, Georg. iii. ver. 86: -

Densa juba, et dextro jactata recumbit in armo

"His toss’ d thick mane on his right shoulder falls.

Naturally, the horse is one of the most timid of animals; and this may be at once accounted for from his small quantity of brain. Perhaps there is no animal of his size that has so little. He acquires courage only from discipline; for naturally he starts with terror and affright at any sudden noise. It requires much discipline to bring him to hear the noise of drums and trumpets, and especially to bear a pair of kettle drums placed on each side his neck, and beaten there, with the most alarming variety of sounds. Query, Does the sacred text allude to any thing of this kind? I have been led to form this thought from the following circumstance. In some ancient MSS. of the Shah Nameh, a most eminent heroic poem, by the poet Ferdoosy, the Homer of India, in my own collection, adorned with paintings, representing regal interviews, animals, battles, etc., there appear in some places representations of elephants, horses, and camels, with a pair of drums, something like our kettle drums, hanging on each side of the animal’ s neck, and beaten, by a person on the saddle, with two plectrums or drumsticks; the neck itself being literally clothed with the drums and the housings on which they are fixed. Who is it then that has framed the disposition of such a timid animal, that by proper discipline it can bear those thundering sounds, which at first would have scared it to the uttermost of distraction? The capacity to receive discipline and instruction is as great a display of the wisdom of God as the formation of the bodies of the largest, smallest, or most complex animals is of his power. I leave this observation without laying any stress upon it. On such difficult subjects conjecture has a lawful range.