Job 39:5

Who hath sent out the wild ass free?.... Into the wide waste, where it is, ranges at pleasure, and is not under the restraint of any; a creature which, as it is naturally wild, is naturally averse to

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Wild ass.

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? who hath given him this disposition, that he loves freedom, and avoids and hates that subjection which other creatures quietly and contentedly endure? Who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? which is not to be understood privatively, as if God took off the bands which men had put upon him; but negatively, that he keeps him from receiving the bands and submitting to the service of man. Who hath made him so untractable and unmanageable? Which is the more strange, because home-bred asses are so tame and tractable.

Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?Ver. 5. Who hath sent out the wild ass free?] ôøà Phere, ferum animal (so Tremellius rendereth it), the wild creature. And it is not unlikely that the Latin word fera comes from this Hebrew word for a wild ass; which is a most untameable and untractable creature, Eo quod onager feritate antecellit (Piscat.). "Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind," James 3:7. We read of Augustus Caesar that he had a tame tiger, but who ever heard of a wild ass tamed? Africa is said to have whole herds of them; and it is reported, that when they see a man they stand stock still, and kick with their hinder feet, braying aloud. And when the hunter comes so near to them that he could touch them almost, they snuff up the wind, kick up their heels, and run quite away; so nimble they are, that they can hardly be taken, much less tamed? To the colt of this wild creature is a natural man compared by Zophar, Job 11:12, for his extreme rudeness and unruliness. The prophet Jeremiah hath the like of the idolaters of his time, Jeremiah 2:24, who were lawless and lewd losels, obstinate, and refractory; such as multo facilius fregeris quam flexeris, will sooner break than bend: with these froward God will wrestle, Psalms 18:26; with these antipodes God will walk contrary, Leviticus 26:41, and be as cross as they are for the hearts of them. His law hath four teeth to taw and tame these masterless monsters: viz. 1. Irritation, Romans 7:7 2. Induration, Isaiah 6:10 3. Obsignation, Genesis 4:7 4. Execration, Deuteronomy 28:16-17, &c. Obeyed he will be of them, either actively or passively; and sanctified he will be, either by them or upon them, Leviticus 10:3. Wild asses are free from men; but so are not wild Ishmaelites from God. Who hath ever loosed the bands of the wild ass? but God will hamper his rebels, and certainly subdue them; all his foes shall become his footstool. Be instructed therefore, O Jerusalem, Jeremiah 6:8. Be not as horse and mule that have no understanding, &c., for many sorrows shall be to such wicked, Psalms 32:9-10, and it is too hard for them to kick against the pricks, Acts 9:5, to push back upon the goad, as untamed heifers use to do, but to their further sorrow and sufferance.

Verse 5. Who hath sent out the wild ass free?] פרא pere, which we translate wild ass, is the same as the ονοςαγριος of the Greeks, and the onager of the Latins; which must not, says Buffon, be confounded with the zebra, for this is an animal of a different species from the ass. The wild ass is not striped like the zebra, nor so elegantly shaped. There are many of those animals in the deserts of Libya and Numidia: they are of a gray colour; and run so swiftly that no horse but the Arab barbs can overtake them. Wild asses are found in considerable numbers in East and South Tartary, in Persia, Syria, the islands of the Archipelago, and throughout Mauritania. They differ from tame asses only in their independence and liberty, and in their being stronger and more nimble: but in their shape they are the same. See on Job 6:5. The bands of the wild ass?] ערוד arod, the brayer, the same animal, but called thus because of the frequent and peculiar noise he makes. But Mr. Good supposes this to be a different animal from the wild ass, (the jichta or equus hemionus,) which is distinguished by having solid hoofs, a uniform colour, no cross on the back, and the tail hairy only at the tip. The ears and tail resemble those of the zebra; the hoofs and body, those of the ass; and the limbs, those of the horse. It inhabits Arabia, China, Siberia, and Tartary, in glassy saline plains or salt wastes, as mentioned in the following verse.

5–8. The wild ass. Who gave the wild ass his freedom and his indomitable love of liberty—who scorns the noise of cities and laughs at the shouts of the driver, which his tame brother obeys? The point of the questions lies not only in the striking peculiarities of the beautiful creature itself, but in the strange contrast between it and the tame ass, which in external appearance it resembles.

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? - For a description of the wild ass, see the notes at Job 11:12. On the meaning of the word rendered “free” (חפשׁי chophshı̂y), see the notes at Isaiah 58:6.

γ. From animals who need no human care in the time of their extremity, the speaker now turns to creatures who despise man and rebel against all human interference.