a peal of thunder · noun, common masculine singular construct
captains
שָׂ֝רִיםSa.rim
H8269
a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
shouting
וּתְרוּעָֽהu.te.ru.'Ah
H8643
clamor · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Psalms 70:3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.
Ezekiel 26:2 Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I sh…
Ezekiel 36:2 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 39:19-25
God, having displayed his own power in those creatures that are strong and despise man, here shows it in one scarcely inferior to any of them in strength, and yet very tame and serviceable to man, and that is the horse, especially the horse that is prepared against the day of battle and is serviceable to man at a time when he has more than ordinary occasion for his service. It seems, there was, in Job's country, a noble generous breed of horses. Job, it is probable, kept many, though they are not mentioned among his possessions, cattle for use in husbandry being there valued more than those for state and war, which alone horses were then reserved for, and they were not then put to such mean…
saith--poetically applied to his mettlesome neighing, whereby he shows his love of the battle.
smelleth--snuffeth; discerneth (Isa 11:3, Margin).
thunder--thundering voice.
Adam Clarke on Job 39:25
He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha - The original is peculiarly emphatical: האח Heach! a strong, partly nasal, partly guttural sound, exactly resembling the first note which the horse emits in neighing. The strong, guttural sounds in this hemistich are exceedingly expressive: האח ומרחוק יריח מלחמה Heach! umerachok yariach milchamah; "Heach, for from afar he scenteth the battle."
The reader will perceive that Mr. Good has given a very different meaning to Job 39:20 from that in the present text, Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? by translating the Hebrew thus: -
"Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow?"
The word ארבה arbeh, which we translate locust or grasshopper, and w…
He saith among the trumpets, ha, ha,.... As pleased with the sound of them, rejoicing thereat, and which he signifies by neighing;
and he smelleth the battle afar off; which respects not so much the distance of place as of time; he perceives beforehand that it is near, by the preparations making for it, and particularly by what follows; so Pliny (b) says of horses, they presage a fight. The thunder of the captains, and the shouting; they understand an engagement is just about to start by the loud and thundering voice of the captains, exhorting and spiralling up their men, and giving them the word of command; and by the clamorous shout of the soldiers echoing to the speech of their captains;…
The Church Fathers
"But when the trumpet sounded the charge, he said, Come on. When the time of temptation comes, he will be pleased with himself, if he glorifies himself in the midst of tribulation, because the tribulation produces patience, patience, purity, and hope (4). From now on he will no longer say to his soul, rejecting the evil: "Why do you trouble me? But happy with his victory. he will exclaim: "O my soul, praise the Lord (5). - From a distance he smells the fight. He does not have in view the persecutors; that he has before his eyes; but he scents away those whom his eye could not discover; for he knows it, "We have not to fight against the flesh and the blood, but against the principalities and the powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of malice spread in the air (6) . This is the meaning given to these words "From afar. It is said, "He sniffs," a well chosen expression, because of the prince of power spread in the air. The sense of smell perceives all the good or bad smells. He then smells the fight, the one who realizes that the prince of the powers of the air acts on the sons of defiance. 7. If they pursue him with their hatred or want to make him fall into their traps, he expects these spirits wicked, fight with spiritual weapons, and not with the weapons that protect the body, because it does not fight against flesh and blood, that is to say against the wicked and corrupt men that his eye can see. "The thunder and clamor of the chiefs. It must be implied: "he smells. Thunder, I think, is here named because of the air in which the wicked spirits are spread. These spirits are not called the masters of the world, as if they governed heaven and earth; but in the sense indicated by the Apostle. So that we do not understand his thought in this way, he immediately explains in what way they are the masters of the world.
When he heareth the trumpet, he saith, Vah. He smelleth the battle afar off, the exhortation of the captains, and the howling of the army. 69. By which words this also is plainly shewn, that, in this place, nothing is said by the Lord of the irrational horse. For a brute animal cannot say, 'Vah;' but while it is said to say that, which it is quite unable to say, it is pointed out whom it designates. For 'Vah' is a word of exultation. The horse, therefore, says 'Vah,' on hearing the trumpet, because every bold preacher, when he thinks the contest of suffering approaching, exults in the exercise of virtue: and is not alarmed at the peril of the contest, because he rejoices in the triumph of victory. For the horse, therefore, to say, 'Vah,' is for a holy preacher to rejoice in his approaching suffering. But if a bold preacher seeks the glory of suffering, if he seeks with joy to undergo the peril of death for the Lord's sake; why is it that the Truth declared to Peter, that boldest preacher, who from his sturdy heart, adopted his virtue in his name; When thou shall be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldest not? [John 21, 18] How does he rejoice in his suffering, who being girt by another, will not go whither he is led? But if we consider how the mind is shaken by the approach of suffering, and the fear of death, and yet rejoices at the coming reward of the kingdom, we understand how it is willingly unwilling to undergo the peril of a glorious contest: because it both considers in death what to endure and fear, and it beholds in the fruit of death what to long and seek for. 70. Let us see how Paul loves what he shrinks from, how he shrinks from what he loves. For he says, I have a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. [Phil. 1, 23] And, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [ib. 21] And yet he says, We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. [2 Cor. 5, 4] Behold he both longs to die, and yet is afraid of being stripped of the flesh. Why is this? Because, though victory makes him joyful for ever, punishment nevertheless disturbs him for the present: and though the love of the subsequent gift prevails, yet the blow of sorrow grazes the mind, not without pain. For as a…
Dictionary and topics
Aha! — An exclamation of ridicule (Ps. 35:21; 40:15; 70:3). In Isa. 44:16 it signifies joyful surprise, as also in Job 39:25, R.V.
Horse — Always referred to in the Bible in connection with warlike operations, except Isa. 28:28. The war-horse is described Job 39:19-25. For a long period after their settlement in Canaan the Israelites…
B · Unclean: Horse — Unclean: Horse
Horse · .Great strength — .Great strength
Trumpet · Used in war — Used in war
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).
19 Dost thou give to the horse strength?
Dost thou clothe his neck with flowing hair?
20 Dost thou cause him to leap about like the grasshopper?
The noise of his snorting is a terror!
21 He paweth the ground in the plain, and boundeth about with strength.
He advanceth to meet an armed host.
22 He laugheth at fear, and is not affrighted,
And turneth not back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattleth over him,
The glittering lance and spear.
24 With fierceness and rage he swalloweth the ground,
And standeth not still, when the trumpet soundeth.
25 He saith at every blast of the trumpet: Ha, ha!
And from afar he scenteth the battle,
The thundering of the captains and the shout of war.
After the os…
The ram’s horn was sounded in combat to call for the charge (Josh 6:4-6).
Rashi on Job 39:25
To many shofaroth Heb. בדי, an expression of (Lev. 25:28), “sufficient (די) to get it back,” to many shofaroth.
he says, ‘Hurrah!’ An expression that (the passersby) (the slaves—Berechiah) say when they are happy, much as they say, ‘Woe!’ out of pain.
When he heareth the trumpet, he saith, Vah. He smelleth the battle afar off, the exhortation of the captains, and the howling of the army. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 84. For their own good fortune has more fatally overthrown many, and a long-continued peace has rendered many slothful; and the unexpected enemy has struck them the more heavily, the more he has found them careless, from being long used to quiet. Whence holy men, when they observe that they are advancing in great prosperity of virtues, rejoice that they are exercised also with temptations, by a kind of adjustment of heavenly dispensation; because they guard the more firmly the glory received in their virtues, the more humbly they acknowledge their own infirmity, from being assaulted with the shock of temptation. The horse, therefore, says, 'Vah,' when he has heard the trumpet, because, namely, the warrior of God, when he beholds the force of temptation pressing on him, considering the benefit of the heavenly dispensation, is more firmly confident, from his very adversity. And the assaults of this adversity therefore do not overcome him, because they never attack him unexpectedly. For he marks long beforehand, from each circumstance, of what vice the assault is coming on. Whence it also follows; He smelleth the battle afar off. 85. For, to 'smell the battle afar off,' is to discern from preceding causes, what contests of vices succeed. For because, (as has been already frequently said,) a thing which is not seen, is discerned by its smell, to smell the battle afar off is to search out lurking wickedness, by the looking forward of our thoughts, as if by the breath of our nostrils. Of which power of scent the Lord rightly says in the praise of His Church, Thy nose is as the tower, which is in Libanus. [Cant. 7, 4] We distinguish also by the nose between odours and foul smells. And what is designated by the nose, but the farseeing discernment of the saints? But a watch-tower is placed on high, that the approaching enemy may be seen from far. The nose of the Church is therefore rightly said to be like the tower in Libanus; because while the far-seeing discernment of the saints, being placed on high, looks anxiously on all sides, it discovers a fault before it arrives; and as it watchfully marks it beforehand, so it boldly avoids it. Hence Habakkuk says, I will stand upon my watch. [Hab. 2, 1] Hence…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
