9 "Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will it stay by your manger at night?
9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
9 "Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger?
9 "Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you, volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
9 "Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?
9 "Will the wild ox consent to being tamed? Will it spend the night in your stall?
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued
21 If you don't show up soon, I'm done for - gored by the bulls, meat for the lions.
21 Save Me from the lion's mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me.
21 Snatch me from the lion's jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen.
(Read Psalm 22:11-21)
In these verses we have Christ suffering, and Christ praying; by which we are directed to look for crosses, and to look up to God under them. The very manner of Christ's death is described, though not in use among the Jews. They pierced his hands and his feet, which were nailed to the accursed tree, and his whole body was left so to hang as to suffer the most severe pain and torture. His natural force failed, being wasted by the fire of Divine wrath preying upon his spirits. Who then can stand before God's anger? or who knows the power of it? The life of the sinner was forfeited, and the life of the Sacrifice must be the ransom for it. Our Lord Jesus was stripped, when he was crucified, that he might clothe us with the robe of his righteousness. Thus it was written, therefore thus it behoved Christ to suffer. Let all this confirm our faith in him as the true Messiah, and excite our love to him as the best of friends, who loved us, and suffered all this for us. Christ in his agony prayed, prayed earnestly, prayed that the cup might pass from him. When we cannot rejoice in God as our song, yet let us stay ourselves upon him as our strength; and take the comfort of spiritual supports, when we cannot have spiritual delights. He prays to be delivered from the Divine wrath. He that has delivered, doth deliver, and will do so. We should think upon the sufferings and resurrection of Christ, till we feel in our souls the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.
10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me
10 But you've made me strong as a charging bison, you've honored me with a festive parade.
10 But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.
10 But you have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil.
(Read Psalm 92:7-15)
God sometimes grants prosperity to wicked men in displeasure; yet they flourish but for a moment. Let us seek for ourselves the salvation and grace of the gospel, that being daily anointed by the Holy Spirit, we may behold and share the Redeemer's glory. It is from his grace, by his word and Spirit, that believers receive all the virtue that keeps them alive, and makes them fruitful. Other trees, when old, leave off bearing, but in God's trees the strength of grace does not fail with the strength of nature. The last days of the saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work their best work: perseverance is sure evidence of sincerity. And may every sabbath, while it shows forth the Divine faithfulness, find our souls resting more and more upon the Lord our righteousness.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 39:9
Chapter Contents
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, Jeremiah 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.