(7) The crying of the driver.--Or, the shoutings of the taskmaster. The word is the same as is applied to the taskmasters of Egypt, and this suggests the question whether or not there may be a reminiscence of that bondage here.
Verse 7. - He scorneth the multitude of the city. Avoids, that is, the haunts of men, and is never seen near them. Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. Nothing will induce the wild ass to submit to domestication.
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.
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 "to run". Or it may be rendered, "the noise of the city", so Cocceius; the stir and bustle in it, through a multiplicity of men in business;
neither regardeth he the crying of the driver; or "hears" (w): he neither feels his blows, nor hears his words; urging him to move faster and make quicker dispatch, as the tame ass does; he being neither ridden nor driven, nor drawing in a cart or plough.
(r) Ut supra. (Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752.) (s) Ut supra. (De Expedition. Cyril, l. 1.) (t) Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 36. (u) Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 1. c. 9. Colossians 63. (w) "non audiet", Pagninus, Montanus.
neither regardeth he the crying of the driver; or "hears" (w): he neither feels his blows, nor hears his words; urging him to move faster and make quicker dispatch, as the tame ass does; he being neither ridden nor driven, nor drawing in a cart or plough.
(r) Ut supra. (Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752.) (s) Ut supra. (De Expedition. Cyril, l. 1.) (t) Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 36. (u) Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 1. c. 9. Colossians 63. (w) "non audiet", Pagninus, Montanus.