Teks -- Job 39:26 (NET)

39:26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Job 39:26 - Fly

So strongly, constantly, unweariedly, and swiftly.

Wesley: Job 39:26 - South

At the approach of winter, when wild hawks fly into warmer countries, as being impatient of cold. The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful providence of God, as well as the beasts of the earth. God instances in two stately ones.

JFB: Job 39:26

The instinct by which some birds migrate to warmer climes before winter. Rapid flying peculiarly characterizes the whole hawk genus.

Clarke: Job 39:26 - Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom - The hawk is called נץ nets , from its swiftness in darting down upon its prey; hence its Latin name, nisus, which is almost the same as the Hebrew. It may very probably mean the falcon, observes Dr. Shaw. The flight of a strong falcon is wonderfully swift. A falcon belonging to the Duke of Cleves flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock of near thirty miles in an hour. Thuanus says, "A hawk flew from London to Paris in one night."It was owing to its swiftness that the Egyptians in their hieroglyphics made it the emblem of the wind

Clarke: Job 39:26 - Stretch her wings toward the south?

Stretch her wings toward the south? - Most of the falcon tribe pass their spring and summer in cold climates; and wing their way toward warmer regions on the approach of winter. This is what is here meant by stretching her wings toward the south. Is it through thy teaching that this or any other bird of passage knows the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go in order to come to a warmer climate? There is much of the wisdom and providence of God to be seen in the migration of birds of passage. This has been remarked before. There is a beautiful passage in Jeremiah, Jer 8:7, on the same subject: "The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the Lord."

TSK: Job 39:26 - the hawk // stretch

the hawk : Netz , Arabic naz , Latin nisus , the hawk, so called from natzah , to shoot away, fly, because of the rapidity of its flight. It probably comprehends various species of the falcon family, as the ger-falcon, goshawk, and sparrowhawk. Lev 16:11; Deu 14:15

stretch : Is it through thy teaching that the falcon, or any other bird of passage, knows the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go to arrive at a warmer climate? Son 2:12; Jer 8:7

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 39:26 - Doth the hawk fly // Stretch her wings toward the south

Doth the hawk fly in so singular a manner, so strongly and steadily, so constantly and unweariedly, so swiftly and speedily, so regularly and cunningly, to catch her prey, by thy wisdom ; didst thou inspire her with that wisdom?

Stretch her wings toward the south which she doth, either.

1. When she casts her old feathers, and gets new ones, which is furthered either by the warmth of southerly winds, or by the heat of the sun, which was southward from Job’ s country, as it is from ours; whence it is, that as wild hawks do this by natural instinct, so the places which men build for the keeping of tame hawks are built towards the south. Or,

2. In or towards winter, when wild hawks fly into warmer countries, as being impatient of cold weather.

Haydock: Job 39:26 - Feathered // South

Feathered. Hebrew, "fly." (Haydock) ---

South, at the approach of "winter retiring" to warmer regions. (Pliny x. 8.) ---

Septuagint, "spreading her wings, looking unmoved, towards the south." The hawk alone can stare at the sun, and fly to a great height. (Ælian x. 14.) ---

Hence the Egyptians consecrated this bird to the sun. (Calmet) ---

The eagle is of the same species, and has the same properties. (Haydock) Aristotle mentions 10, and Pliny 16 species of hawks. (Worthington)

Gill: Job 39:26 - Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom // and stretch her wings towards the south

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,.... With so much swiftness, steadiness, and constancy, until she has seized her prey. The Vulgate Latin version and some others read, "does she become feathered", or "begin to have feathers?" and so Bochart: either when first fledged; or when, as it is said ^d she casts her old feathers and gets new ones, and this every year. Now neither her flight nor her feathers, whether at one time or the other, are owing to men, but to the Lord, who gives both;

and stretch her wings towards the south? Being a bird of passage, she moves from colder climates towards the winter, and steers her course to the south towards warmer ones ^e; which she does by an instinct in nature, put into her by the Lord, and not through the instruction of man. Or, as some say, casting off her old feathers, she flies towards the south for warmth; and that her feathers may be cherished with the heat, and grow the sooner and better. Hence it is, perhaps, as Aelianus reports ^f, that this bird was by the Egyptians consecrated to Apollo or the sun; it being able to look upon the rays of it wistly, constantly, and easily, without being hurt thereby. Porphyry ^g says, that this bird is not only acceptable to the sun; but has divinity in it, according to the Egyptians; and is no other than Osiris, or the sun represented by the image of it ^h. Strabo ⁱ speaks of a city of the hawks, where this creature is worshipped. It has its name in Greek from the sacredness of it; and according to Hesiod ^k, is very swift, and has large wings. It is called ωκυπτερος, swift in flying, by Manetho ^l; and by Homer, ωκιστος πετεηνων, the swiftest of fowls ^m. It has its name from נצה, to "fly", as Kimchi observes ⁿ. Cyril of Jerusalem, on the authority of the Greek version, affirms ^o, that by a divine instinct or order, the hawk, stretching out its wings, stands in the midst of the air unmoved, looking towards the south. All accounts show it to be a bird that loves warmth, which is the reason of the expression in the text.