Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 39

They grow up with corn. — Or more probably, perhaps, in the open field, as the word means according to some.

The crying of the driver. —Or, the shoutings of the taskmaster. The word is the same as that applied to the taskmasters of Egypt, and this suggests the question whether or not there may be a reminiscence of that bondage here.

The unicorn. —It is a mistake to identify this animal with the rhinoceros, as was formerly done; it is more probably the same as the buffalo, or wild ox. The most glaring form of the mistake is in Psalm 22:22: Thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns.

The way in which the animal is here spoken of, as in analogous contrast to the domestic ox, suggests that it is not wholly dissimilar. It is familiar and domestic toil that the wild ox is contemplated as undertaking, in the place of tame cattle, whose work it is.

Will you believe him? — that is, trust him, as in the former verse Will you [trust was, rather, Will you feel confidence in him?

Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? —Rather, The wing of the ostrich is superb, but are her pinions and her feathers like the stork’s? Ostrich feathers are said to be worth from £8 to £15 a pound; but, beautiful and valuable as they are, they are hardly like the plumage of a bird, and are not so used for flight; on the contrary, the ostrich runs like a quadruped, it is stated at the rate sometimes of fifty or sixty miles an hour.