Job 39:15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.

◄ Job 39:15 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them.

English Standard Version
forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.

New American Standard Bible
And she forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may trample them.

King James Bible
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.

International Standard Version
but she forgets that a foot might crush them or any wild animal might trample them.

American Standard Version
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, Or that the wild beast may trample them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
She forgetteth that the foot may tread upon them, or that the beasts of the field may break them.

Darby Bible Translation
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the beast of the field may trample them.

Young's Literal Translation
And she forgetteth that a foot may press it, And a beast of the field tread it down.

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.