Job 39:30

Her young ones also suck up blood,.... As well as herself, being brought up to it by her. The eagle cares not for water, but drinks the blood of her prey; and so her young ones after her, as naturalists report (w).

Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she. Quoted partly by Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:28).

Blood; either of the prey which the eagle hath brought to her nest for them, or of that which themselves catch and kill, being betimes inured to this work by their dams. Naturalists note of the eagle, that she drinketh no water, but blood only. Where the slain are; where any dead carcasses are, yea, or are like to be; for natural historians write of the eagles, that they can presage or smell a battle some days before it be fought. And although some writers affirm that there are divers eagles who do not feed upon carcasses, and will not meddle with them, yet that many eagles do feed on them is sufficiently evident, by the testimony both of Scripture, as , and of divers both ancient and later writers. There is she, to wit, in an instant, flying thither with admirable celerity.

Job 39:30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain [are], there [is] she.Ver. 30. Her young ones also suck up blood] Heb. They are glutonous for blood. The Hebrew word, jegnalegna dam, seems to be made from the sound in sucking. The young eagles, not yet able to tear the prey brought unto them by the old one with their talons, suck the blood with their beak, and so are fleshed in blood betimes. And where the slain are, there is she] This is true of all the kinds of eagles, but especially of the vulturine eagle, which is of a very sharp smell as well as sight, and, by a strange sagacity of nature, resorteth with her young ones to places of slaughter and bloodshed; she followeth armies and feedeth on carcases, which they can smell, say some naturalists, before the battle is fought. And can this be of any one but the Lord. Our Saviour alludeth to this text, Matthew 24:28, Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be also.

(30) Where the slain are, there is she.—Comp. Matthew 24:28, and Luke 17:37.

Verse 30. Her young ones also suck up blood] The eagle does not feed her young with carrion, but with prey newly slain, so that they may suck up blood. Where the slain are, there is she.] These words are quoted by our Lord. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together," Matthew 24:28. It is likely, however, that this was a proverbial mode of expression; and our Lord adapts it to the circumstances of the Jewish people, who were about to fall a prey to the Romans. See the notes there. IN the preceding notes I have referred to Dr. Shaw's account of the ostrich as the most accurate and authentic yet published. With the following description I am sure every intelligent reader will be pleased. "In commenting therefore upon these texts it may be observed, that when the ostrich is full grown, the neck, particularly of the male, which before was almost naked, is now very beautifully covered with red feathers. The plumage likewise upon the shoulders, the back, and some parts of the wings, from being hitherto of a dark grayish colour, becomes now as black as jet, whilst the rest of the feathers retain an exquisite whiteness. They are, as described Job 39:13, the very feathers and plumage of the stork, i.e., they consist of such black and white feathers as the stork, called from thence chasidah, is known to have. But the belly, the thighs, and the breast, do not partake of this covering, being usually naked, and when touched are of the same warmth as the flesh of quadrupeds. "Under the joint of the great pinion, and sometimes under the less, there is a strong pointed excrescence like a cock's spur, with which it is said to prick and stimulate itself, and thereby acquire fresh strength and vigour whenever it is pursued. But nature seems rather to have intended that, in order to prevent the suffocating effects of too great a plethora, a loss of blood should be consequent thereupon, especially as the ostrich appears to be of a hot constitution, with lungs always confined, and consequently liable to be preter-naturally inflamed upon these occasions. "When these birds are surprised by coming suddenly upon them whilst they are feeding in some valley, or behind some rocky or sandy eminence in the deserts, they will not stay to be curiously viewed and examined. Neither are the Arabs ever dexterous enough to overtake them, even when they are mounted upon their jinse, or horses, as they are called, of family. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, (Job 39:18,) laugh at the horse and his rider. They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was of ascribing to them (Job 30:13) an expanded quivering wing. Nothing, certainly, can be more beautiful and entertaining than such a sight!

27–30. The eagle. Is it at Job’s command that the eagle fixes her habitation fearlessly on the dizzy crag? Did he bestow on her her penetrating vision, which scans the wide expanse of country and pierces into the deep ravine? or did he endow her with her terrible instincts, that shew themselves at once in her young, which “suck up blood”?

Her young ones also suck up blood - The word used here (יעלעוּ ye‛âl‛û) occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures.

30. Where the slain are — Both the eagle and lion will feed ignominiously on a body found dead, as Winer abundantly shows.