41. Who provideth his booty for the raven, When his young ones cry to God for food, And wander for lack of meat? i

i Mark the transition from the noble lioness and her whelps to the hateful raven, and the croaking of her young. Ps. cxlvii. 9.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

1. Knowest thou the time when the swift goat bringeth forth?

Canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?k 2. Canst thou number the months that they fulfil?

Knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

There is here no allusion made to the secrecy of the pregnancy of the above named beasts, (for, in that case, why should the chamois and the hind be particularized.) But, the connection of what precedes, and the sense of what follows, v. 3 and 4, show Jehovah's meaning to be, to recal Job's attention to the wonderful care bestowed by the Almighty on all the creation, by informing him, that even wild beasts which are cut off from all support or community with man, and which delight themselves among the rocks and forests, are taught by an immediate divine instinct, how to help themselves in the act of parturition.

3. They bow themselves, they bring forth

their young,

And cast forth their pains.'

4. Their young ones prosper and wax large in the fields;

They go forth and return not back."

5. Who hath sent the ass of the woods into the wilderness,

1 They do not require to reckon the time of their pregnancy, for their labour is easy.

cleave, Pi. to cause to cleave or burst forth, i. e. to bear. Concerning this meaning of the verb to cleave for to bear, vide Schultens Animadv. Philol. 150. 66 They cast forth their pains," for " they cast with the young ones, which produce pain." m. The young prosper without the care of man.

□ changed with ‍= the Arab. l to be

חָלָב changed with חָלַם

fleshy; in Heb. and Syr. to be strong. Vide

Chrestom. Arab. p. 5. 1 is the pleonast. sibi, as

And who hath loosed the bands of the

wild ass ?n

6. To whom I have given the wilderness as

a dwelling,

And the salt deserts as an abode. °

7. He scorneth the tumult of the city,

He heareth not the crying of the driver. P

n The ass of the woods, onager, here used to denote the most untamed animal. Vide Gen. xvi. 12, where it is announced to Hagar that her son IsVide Gesenius on the

word, concerning the nature of this animal, and

פרא mael should become

ערוד that it does not differ from the following

nobe saline, i. e. unfruitful land, vide Ps.

T " :

cvii. 34, "Omnis locus, in quo reperitur sal, sterilis est nihilque gignit." Lowth de Poes. Sacr. 170. Plin. Hist. Nat. L. XXXI. ch. vii. In Jeremiah ii. 24, the wild ass is called 77777,"accustomed to the desert."

P The freedom of the ass is depicted with a sort of poetical sympathy. Also the Arabian poets love to describe the wild ass. We must remember, that in Persia the ass is a highly valued animal-that several kings have added its name to theirs

8. That which is seen upon the hills is his

pasture,

And he searcheth for every green thing. 9. Is the buffalo willing to serve thee? Or will he abide by night in thy cribs?"

e. g. Behramgur the renowned Sassanide

بهر

امكور

to go about in search תור a nom. from יתור

q

of any thing, as Dip from p. Several old

:

translators, as the Chald., the LXX. and the Vulgate, and also some of the modern, take it as the fut. verb, and translate "He encircleth the hills." But then, we must point 1, or take an Aram. form, as N, Eccles. xi. 3.

:

r It is disputed whether (usually or contracted) means a gazelle, (as Eichhorn believes it to be,) or a wild buffalo. The latter is the more suitable meaning, since, in verse 10, there is question of the animal being yoked in the plough. Vide Schultens in loco, and De Wette on Ps. xxii. 22. On the other hand, Rosenmüller in loco. It is doubtful whether 18 means a stable or a crib. Vide