“Is it your wisdom that makes the hawk soar and spread its wings toward the south?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?
- KJV Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
- BSB Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
- NKJV “Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south?
- NASB ¶“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, Stretching his wings toward the south?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks whether the hawk's wisdom to soar and migrate comes from Job. The bird's instinct for flight and migration is the Creator's gift, not man's teaching.
Overview
Turning to the hawk, God asks if Job is the source of its soaring flight and seasonal migration southward. These instincts, embedded by God, lie far beyond human design. The questioning continues to expose the limits of Job's knowledge and power, calling him to trust the wisdom of the One who governs even the migrations of birds.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Song 2:12The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
- Jer 8:7Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
- Lev 16:11“Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself.
- Deut 14:15the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk after its kind,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 39:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.