Bible Strands
Job 39:27
Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Job in a rhetorical discourse about the untamable wild, questioning human authority over creation. The dialogue occurs during Job’s suffering, as Yahweh challenges Job’s understanding of divine sovereignty.
The words — The Hebrew אִם־ (ʾim) functions as a rhetorical question marker, while נָשֶׁר (našer) literally names the eagle. The verb יַגְבִּיהוּ (yagbihehu) describes the action of raising its flight high.
The thread — The eagle imagery recurs in Jeremiah 49:16 and Obadiah 1:4 to depict pride and impending judgment, while Exodus 19:4 uses eagles’ wings to describe God’s deliverance of Israel.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that human commands hold no power over wild creatures, forcing Job to confront his limited authority against God’s sovereign design.
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 eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 49:16 The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Obadiah 1:4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Exodus 19:4 ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
- Leviticus 11:13 Additionally, you are to detest the following birds, and they must not be eaten because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,
- Psalms 103:5 who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
- Proverbs 23:5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
- Hosea 8:1 Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.