time · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
up
תַּמְרִ֑יאtam.Ri'
H4754
to rebel · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
high
בַּמָּר֣וֹםba.ma.Rom
H4791
altitude · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
scorneth
תִּֽשְׂחַ֥קtis.Chak
H7832
to laugh (in pleasure or detraction) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
horse
לַ֝סּ֗וּסla.Sus
H5483
a horse (as leaping) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
rider
וּלְרֹֽכְבֽוֹu.le.Ro.khe.Vo
H7392
to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle) · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 19:21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; th…
Job 5:22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
Job 39:22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Job 41:29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 39:13-18
The ostrich is a wonderful animal, a very large bird, but it never flies. Some have called it a winged camel. God here gives an account of it, and observes,
I. Something that it has in common with the peacock, that is, beautiful feathers (Job 39:13): Gavest thou proud wings unto the peacocks? so some read it. Fine feathers make proud birds. The peacock is an emblem of pride; when he struts, and shows his fine feathers, Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like him. The ostrich too has goodly feathers, and yet is a foolish bird; for wisdom does not always go along with beauty and gaiety. Other birds do not envy the peacock or the ostrich their gaudy colours, nor complain for want of them;…
Notwithstanding her deficiencies, she has distinguishing excellences.
lifteth . . . herself--for running; she cannot mount in the air. GESENIUS translates: "lashes herself" up to her course by flapping her wings. The old versions favor English Version, and the parallel "scorneth" answers to her proudly "lifting up herself."
Adam Clarke on Job 39:18
She lifteth up herself - When she raiseth up herself to run away. Proofs of the fleetness of this bird have already been given. It neither flies nor runs distinctly, but has a motion composed of both; and, using its wings as sails, makes great speed. So Claudian: -
Vasta velut Libyae venantum vocibus ales
Cum premitur, calidas cursu transmittit arenas,
Inque modum veli sinuatis flamine pennis
Pulverulenta volat.
"Xenophon says, Cyrus had horses that could overtake the goat and the wild ass; but none that could reach this creature. A thousand golden ducats, or a hundred camels, was the stated price of a horse that could equal their speed." - Dr. Young.
John Gill on Job 39:18
What time she lifted up herself on high,.... It is sometimes eight foot high (l); when alarmed with approaching danger she raises up herself, being sitting on the ground, and erects her wings for flight, or rather running;
she scorneth the horse and his rider; being then, as Pliny (m) says, higher than a man on horseback, and superior to a horse in swiftness; and though horsemen have been able to take wild asses and goats, very swift creatures, yet never ostriches, as Xenophon relates (n) of those in Arabia; and this creature has another method, when pursued, by which it defies and despises, as well as hurts and incommodes its pursuers, which is by casting stones backward at them with its f…
The Church Fathers
"At the appointed time, it will rise in the air, and will laugh at the horse and its rider. When the fullness of time comes, where the rich will be commanded not to be proud, not to put their trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, they will raise their hearts to the Lord. will scorn the superb tyrants that God has thrown into the sea. Then the feathers of the ostrich will mingle, rising to the sky, those of the more agile birds, and all that is said of this animal will have its fulfillment .
When the time shall come, she raiseth her wings on high, she scorneth the horseman, and his rider. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 42. The ostrich raiseth her wings on high, when the synagogue opposes its Creator, not as before by dreading, but by now openly withstanding, Him. For being changed into the limbs of the devil, and believing the man of lies to be God, it exalts itself the higher against the faithful, the more it boasts also, that it is itself the body of God. And because it despises, not only the Manhood of the Lord, but also His very Godhead, it scorns, not merely the horseman, but the rider of the horseman also. For, without violating the unity of the Person, it can be understood that the Word of God then mounted the rider, when he created for Himself a living Body within the womb of the Virgin. He then mounted the horseman, when, by creating Himself, He brought under the yoke of Divine worship a human soul, possessing power over its own flesh. For the Godhead assumed the flesh, by the intervention of the soul, and by this means He held together the whole horseman; because He joined together in Himself, not that only which was ruled, but that also which ruled. Judaea therefore, because, having been caught in the snare of seduction, by the coming of haughty Antichrist, it scoffs at our Redeemer, for having been lowly among men, scorns the horseman. But because it, in every thing, denies His Godhead, it scorns equally his rider also. But our Redeemer is, in one and the same person, both the horseman and the rider of the horseman; and, when He came into the world, He set forth mighty preachers against the world; and when, in the end of the world, He endures the craft of Antichrist, He supplies strength to those, who contend in His behalf: that so, when our ancient enemy is set free in that liberty of his which is speedily to be terminated, our faithful ones may receive so much greater strength, the more they have to fight against an adversary who has been let loose.
Dictionary and topics
Ostrich — (Lam. 4:3), the rendering of Hebrew pl. enim; so called from its greediness and gluttony. The allusion here is to the habit of the ostrich with reference to its eggs, which is thus described: “The…
Birds · Habits of — Habits of
Horse, The · Used for: Hunting — Used for: Hunting
Ostrich, The · Described as: Rapid in movement — Described as: Rapid in movement
Ostriches · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
13 The wing of the ostrich vibrates joyously,
Is she pious, wing and feather?
14 No, she leaveth her eggs in the earth
And broodeth over the dust,
15 Forgetting that a foot may crush them,
And the beast of the field trample them.
16 She treateth her young ones harshly as if they were not hers;
In vain is her labour, without her being distressed.
17 For Eloah hath caused her to forget wisdom,
And gave her no share of understanding.
18 At the time when she lasheth herself aloft,
She derideth the horse and horseman.
As the wild ass and the ox-like oryx cannot be tamed by man, and employed in his service like the domestic ass and ox, so the ostrich, although resembling the stork in its stilt-lik…
passes (literally scorns) the swiftest horse with its rider: See 39:7, 22; 41:29.
Rashi on Job 39:18
Like the time that she goes off on high [When she flies up, she scorns the horse. She is not afraid that he will tread on the eggs and crack them.] Every expression of הַמְרָאָה applies to a man whose heart prompts him to stray from his lifestyle, his upbringing, and his country, to roam in other countries and to try other lifestyles. Similarly (Deut. 21:18), “a stubborn and rebellious (וּמרֶה) son”; and in the language of the Talmud it is אִמְרָאִי: “Rav Zevid’s daughter-in-law rebelled (אִמְרָאִי) and went away” (Kethuboth 63b, Venice edition) (cf. Rashi to Hullin 58b, Baba Mezia 77a).
When the time shall be, she raiseth her wings on high, she scorneth the horseman and his rider. 27. For what do we understand by the wings of this ostrich, except the thoughts of the hypocrite, kept close at this time as if folded together? But when the time shall come, he raises them on high; because when an opportunity is found, he makes them manifest by his pride. To raise the wings on high, is to disclose his thoughts with unbridled haughtiness. But now, because he pretends that he is holy, because he confines what he thinks to himself, he folds, as it were, his wings on his body, by humility. But it must be observed, that He says not, The horse and his rider, but, The horseman and his rider. For the horse is the body which belongs to each holy soul, which it knows in truth both how to restrain from unlawful pursuits by the bit of continence, and again to let loose by the impulse of charity, in the exercise of good works. By the name, therefore, of 'horseman' is expressed the soul of a holy man, which keeps the body, its beast of burden, under good control. Whence also the Apostle John, in the Apocalypse, having beheld the Lord, says; And the armies which are in heaven, were following Him on white horses. [Rev. 19, 14] For he rightly calls an army, the multitude of the Saints, which had toiled in this war of martyrdom. And they are said, for this reason, to sit on white horses, because their bodies doubtless were brilliant with both the light of righteousness, and the whiteness of chastity. The hypocrite therefore scorns the horseman, because, when he has burst forth in open iniquity, he despises the sanctity of the Elect; and in his pride calls those fools, whom he used to imitate with cunning art, when kept down by the peace of the faith. But who else is the rider of this horseman, but Almighty God, Who both, foreseeing, created those things which were not, and possessing, rules over those which are? For he surely mounts the horseman, because He possesses the soul of every holy man, who possesses his own members aright. For this hypocrite then to scorn the horseman, is for him to despise the saints: but to scorn the rider of the horseman, is for him to leap forward even to do wrong to the Creator. 28. For since in every lapse, men always begin with the smallest faults, and as defects secretly grow up, attain to more grievous sins, the iniquity of this…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
