Job 39:19

Job 39:19-25 . Hast thou given the horse strength? — Hebrew, גבורה , geburah, his fortitude, the courage and generous confidence for which the horse is highly commended. The reader will observe, that all the great and sprightly images which thought can form of this noble animal are expressed in this paragraph with such force and vigour of style as (to use the words of an elegant writer) “would have given the great wits of antiquity new laws for the sublime, had they been acquainted with these writings.” It is true, in the third book of Virgil’s Georgics, we find a fine description of a horse, chiefly copied from Homer, of which Dryden has given us the following admirable translation: The fiery courser, when he hears from far The sprightly trumpets and the shouts of war, Pricks up his ears; and, trembling with delight, Shifts place, 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 chine 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.

But, if the reader will compare with this the present passage, he will find that, “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 strange to us; and, above all, of appearing in a prose translation, it is so transcendently above the heathen description, that hereby we may perceive how faint and languid the images are which are formed by mortal authors, when compared with that which is figured, as it were, just as it appears in the eye of the Creator. He will observe in particular, that, whereas the classical poets chiefly endeavour 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.” Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? — A strong metaphor to denote force and terror. “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.” Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?

19, 20 . The verbs are better put in the present. 19. Dost thou give strength to the horse? Dost thou clothe his neck with trembling? 20. Dost thou make him leap like the locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible. 19 . The word “trembling” hardly refers to the mane alone, but rather describes the quivering of the neck, when the animal is roused, which erects the mane. 19–25 . The war horse.

Verse 19. - Hast thou given the horse strength? (comp. Psalm 147:10 ). Geburah means, however, more than "strength." It includes courage and all martial excellence. Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Many objections have been taken to this expression; and endeavours have been made to show that the word used ( דַעְמָה ) does not mean "thunder," but" a tremulous motion," "quivering muscles and a tossing mane," or else "scorn," "indignation." But as רַעַם always means "thunder" ( Job 26:14 ; Job 39:25 ; Psalm 77:19 : 81:8; 145:7; Isaiah 29:6 ), it seems unlikely that רעמה means anything else. To the objection that the metaphor is "incongruous" (Professor Lee), it would appear to be enough to reply that one of our greatest prose-poets has seen in it peculiar fitness. So true every way " says Carlyle, on the passage: "true eyesight and vision for all things; material things, not less than spiritual; "the horse - Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? " ('Lectures on Heroes,' p. 78). Job 39:19

19. The allusion to "the horse" (Job 39:18), suggests the description of him. Arab poets delight in praising the horse; yet it is not mentioned in the possessions of Job (Job 1:3; 42:12). It seems to have been at the time chiefly used for war, rather than "domestic purposes." thunder—poetically for, "he with arched neck inspires fear as thunder does." Translate, "majesty" [Umbreit]. Rather "the trembling, quivering mane," answering to the "vibrating wing" of the ostrich (see on [556]Job 39:13) [Maurer]. "Mane" in Greek also is from a root meaning "fear." English Version is more sublime.

Strength; either strength of body; or rather, courage and generous confidence, for which the horse is highly commended. With thunder, i.e. with snorting and neighing; in the making of which nereid the neck, in regard of the throat, which is within it, and a part of it, is a principal instrument; which noise may not unfitly be called thunder , because of the great vehemency and rage wherewith it is attended, and the great terror which it causeth, especially in war and battle, of which see Jeremiah 8:16 ; and compare 1 Samuel 12:17,18 , where this very term of thundering is ascribed to a far lower and less terrible noise. Nor is this, as some allege, an improper speech, because this thunder or neighing is rather clothed with the neck, as being within it, than the neck with it ; for nothing is more common in Scripture than to say that men are clothed with righteousness , humility , and other graces, which yet are in strictness of speech within the man, and not he within them. But because this word in this form is not elsewhere extant, some render it otherwise, with a mane , with a thick, and full and deep mane, as the phrase of being clothed with it implies; for this is mentioned by all writers of horses as a notable mark of a generous horse; which therefore they conceive would not be omitted here, where so many several properties and excellencies are described.