Bible Strands
Job 39:26
Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Job in a rhetorical discourse on divine providence, positioned between the description of the warhorse in 39:25 and the eagle in 39:27.
The words — בִּינָתְ/ךָ (bi.na.te./kha) means "your understanding," and נֵ֑ץ (Netz) denotes "a hawk" or "falcon."
The thread — The hawk appears in Deuteronomy 14:15 among unclean birds, Song of Solomon 2:12 marks the season of singing, and Leviticus 16:11 describes Aaron’s sin offering.
Why it lands — The verse states that the hawk’s flight and directional spread do not depend on human reasoning, demanding Job recognize God’s autonomous governance over creation rather than assuming human understanding directs nature.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
Cross-references
- Leviticus 16:11 When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.
- Deuteronomy 14:15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
- Song of Solomon 2:12 The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.
- Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.