to laugh (in pleasure or detraction) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
multitude
לַהֲמ֣וֹןla.ha.Mon
H1995
a noise · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
city
קִרְיָ֑הkir.Yah
H7151
building · noun, common feminine singular absolute
regardeth
יִשְׁמָֽעyish.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
crying
תְּשֻׁא֥וֹתte.shu.'ot
H8663
a crashing or loud clamor · noun, common feminine plural construct
driver
נ֝וֹגֵ֗שׂno.Ges
H5065
to drive (an animal · verb, qal active participle, masculine 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
Exodus 5:18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
Job 3:18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
Exodus 5:13-16 And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
Job 39:18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
Isaiah 31:4 For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called fort…
Isaiah 58:3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the d…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 39:1-12
God here shows Job what little acquaintance he had with the untamed creatures that run wild in the deserts and live at large, but are the care of the divine Providence. As,
I. The wild goats and the hinds. That which is taken notice of concerning them is the bringing forth and bringing up of their young ones. For, as every individual is fed, so every species of animals is preserved, by the care of the divine Providence, and, for aught we know, none extinct to this day. Observe here, 1. Concerning the production of their young, (1.) Man is wholly ignorant of the time when they bring forth, Job 39:1, Job 39:2. Shall we pretend to tell what is in the womb of Providence, or what a day will bring…
multitude--rather, "din"; he sets it at defiance, being far away from it in the freedom of the wilderness.
driver--who urges on the tame ass to work. The wild ass is the symbol of uncontrolled freedom in the East; even kings have, therefore, added its name to them.
Adam Clarke on Job 39:7
He scorneth the multitude - He is so swift that he cannot be run or hunted down. See the description in Job 39:5 (note).
John Gill on Job 39:7
He scorneth the multitude of the city,.... Choosing rather to be alone in the wilderness and free than to be among a multitude of men in a city, and be a slave as the tame ass; or it despises and defies a multitude of men, that may come out of cities to take it, Leo Africanus says (r) it yields to none for swiftness but Barbary horses: according to Xenophon (s), it exceeds the horse in swiftness; and when pursued by horsemen, it will outrun them, and stand still and rest till they come near it, and then start again; so that there is no taking it, unless many are employed. Aristotle (t) says it excels in swiftness; and, according to Bochart (u), it has its name in Hebrew from the Chaldee word…
"He disdains the tumult of the city," which Scripture calls Babylon, and which walks by the broad path of perdition (2). "And do not hear the cries of the exacter. " He owes nothing to anyone.
He scorneth the multitude of the city. 56. To scorn the multitude of the city, is to avoid the evil employments of human conversation, so as no longer to take pleasure in imitating the abandoned manners of earthly men, who, through the abundance of iniquity, are many. For they desire to enter, with the few, the narrow gate, and seek not, with the many, to enter the broad roads which lead to destruction. For they carefully behold by Whom, and for what, they are created; and from a right consideration of the image they have received, they disdain to follow the vulgar herd. Whence it is said by the voice of the Bridegroom to the Bride, in the Song of Songs, If thou knowest not thyself, O beautiful among women, go forth, and go thy way after the footsteps of the flocks, and feed thy kids. [Cant. 1, 8] For she who is beautiful among women knows herself, when every Elect soul, though placed amongst sinners, remembers that it was fashioned after the image and similitude of its Creator, and goes on, in accordance with the similitude it has perceived. But if it knows not itself, it goes forth; because, being expelled from the secret recess of its own heart, it is dissipated by outward objects of desire. But when it has gone forth, it goeth after the footsteps of the flocks, because namely, forsaking its own inward thoughts, it is led to the broad way, and follows the examples of the peoples. And it no longer feeds lambs, but kids, because it strives to nourish, not the harmless thoughts of the mind, but the evil motions of the flesh. Because then every Elect and continent person scorns to go after the footsteps of the herds, let it be rightly said, He scorneth the multitude of the city. Where it is also fitly subjoined; He heareth not the cry of the exactor. 57. What other exactor can be understood, but the devil, who once offered to man in paradise the coin of evil persuasion, and seeks to exact from him daily the guilt of this debt? The word of this exactor is the beginning of evil persuasion. The cry of this exactor is temptation, no longer gentle, but violent. This exactor cries out, when he tempts mightily. Not to hear then the voice of the exactor, is not at all to consent to the violent emotions of temptations. For a man would hear, if he were to do the things which he suggests. But when he scorns to do perversely, it is rightly said, He heareth not. the cry…
Dictionary and topics
Ass — Frequently mentioned throughout Scripture. Of the domesticated species we read of, (1.) The she ass (Heb. ‘athon), so named from its slowness (Gen. 12:16; 45:23; Num. 22:23; 1 Sam. 9:3). (2.) The…
Ass, The Wild · Despises his pursuers — Despises his pursuers
B · Unclean: Wild Ass — Unclean: Wild Ass
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 39:5-8
5 Who hath sent forth the wild ass free,
And who loosed the bands of the wild ass,
6 Whose house I made the steppe,
And his dwelling the salt country?
7 He scorneth the tumult of the city,
He heareth not the noise of the driver.
8 That which is seen upon the mountains is his pasture,
And he sniffeth after every green thing.
On the wild ass (not: ass of the forest).
(Note: It is a dirty yellow with a white belly, single-hoofed and long-eared; its hornless head somewhat resembles that of the gazelle, but is much later; its hair has the dryness of the hair of the deer, and the animal forms the transition from the stag and deer genus to the ass. It is entirely distinct from the mah or baqar el-w…
wild donkey . . . hates (literally scorns) the noise of the city: This is the first in a series of animals that scorn others who are their inferiors in some way (cp. 39:18, 22; 41:29). These images illustrate how God scorns the opposition of a man like Job (see Ps 2:4).
Rashi on Job 39:5
free For no man can raise a wild donkey to teach it the work of cattle.
who loosed his bands so that the yoke of man is not upon him.
[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST - continued] He scorneth the multitude of the city. 69. That is, He despises the customs of human conversation. For having been made a Man amongst men, He refused to observe the practice of men. For He was therefore made a Man amongst us, not only to redeem us by the shedding of His blood, but also to change us by setting an example. He found therefore one thing in our conversation at His coming, and taught us another by His life. For all the progeny of the haughty race of Adam were striving to seek after the prosperity of the present life, to avoid its adversities, to escape disgrace, to follow glory. The Incarnate Lord came amongst them courting adversity, scorning prosperity, embracing insults, flying from glory. For when the Jews had wished to make Him their king, He shrunk from being a king. But when they were endeavouring to kill Him, He came of His own accord to the scaffold of the cross. He therefore avoided that which all seek after, He sought after that which all avoid; He caused all to marvel that both He Himself rose again when dead, and by His death raised others from death. For there are in truth two lives of a man who exists in the body, one before death, the other after the resurrection; one of which all practically knew, but knew not the other; and mankind were directing their thoughts to that only which they knew. The Lord came in the flesh, and while He took on Himself the one, He pointed out the other. While He took on Himself that which was known to us, He pointed out to us that which was unknown to us. For by His dying He practised that life which we possess, by rising again He disclosed that life for which we are to seek, instructing us by His example, that this life which we pass before our death, is not to be loved on its own account, but to be tolerated on account of the other. Because then, by practising a new conversation amongst men, He followed not the customs of Babylon, it is well written of Him, He scorneth the multitude of the city. 70. Or certainly, because He forsook the many who were wandering along the broad way, and chose the few who were walking through narrow paths. For to 'scorn the multitude of the city,' is to reject from a share in His Kingdom that portion of mankind which enters the broad way, which also through the abundance of iniquity is many. It follows;…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
