Job 39:14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand,

◄ Job 39:14 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand,

English Standard Version
For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground,

New American Standard Bible
For she abandons her eggs to the earth And warms them in the dust,

King James Bible
Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.

International Standard Version
She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand,

American Standard Version
For she leaveth her eggs on the earth, And warmeth them in the dust,

Douay-Rheims Bible
When she leaveth her eggs on the earth, thou perhaps wilt warm them in the dust.

Darby Bible Translation
For she leaveth her eggs to the earth, and warmeth them in the dust,

Young's Literal Translation
For she leaveth on the earth her eggs, And on the dust she doth warm them,

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

39:1-30 God inquires of Job concerning several animals. - In these questions the Lord continued to humble Job. In this chapter several animals are spoken of, whose nature or situation particularly show the power, wisdom, and manifold works of God. The wild ass. It is better to labour and be good for something, than to ramble and be good for nothing. From the untameableness of this and other creatures, we may see, how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot give law even to a wild ass's colt. The unicorn, a strong, stately, proud creature. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God challenges Job to force him to it. It is a great mercy if, where God gives strength for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, and reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do. Those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale, than the tail of the peacock; the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful feathers of the ostrich, which can never rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? The description of the war-horse helps to explain the character of presumptuous sinners. Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. When a man's heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way, by the violence of his appetites and passions, there is no making him fear the wrath of God, and the fatal consequences of sin. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rocks; but I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, #Jer 49:16". All these beautiful references to the works of nature, should teach us a right view of the riches of the wisdom of Him who made and sustains all things. The want of right views concerning the wisdom of God, which is ever present in all things, led Job to think and speak unworthily of Providence.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

14, 15. Yet (unlike the stork) she "leaveth," &c. Hence called by the Arabs "the impious bird." However, the fact is, she lays her eggs with great care and hatches them, as other birds do; but in hot countries the eggs do not need so constant incubation; she therefore often leaves them and sometimes forgets the place on her return. Moreover, the outer eggs, intended for food, she feeds to her young; these eggs, lying separate in the sand, exposed to the sun, gave rise to the idea of her altogether leaving them. God describes her as she seems to man; implying, though she may seem foolishly to neglect her young, yet really she is guided by a sure instinct from God, as much as animals of instincts widely different.