Job 39:6

Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.

Ver. 6. Whose house I have made the wilderness] That of Arabia especially near unto Job, where were whole droves of these wild asses. There are a sort of them also in Plara, one of the islands of the Aegean Sea. Hermits and anchorites seem to affect the same liberty; but where did God ever grant it them? Man is Zωον πολιτικον, saith Aristotle, Nature’s good fellow, as one Englisheth him; and no sooner had the Philippians received the gospel but they were in fellowship to a day, Php 1:5. The communion of saints is as well a point of Christian practice as an article of Christian belief; and they have much to answer for who sty up themselves, and forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; these are in the ready way to utter apostasy, Heb 10:25; Heb 10:39. He is not like to walk long who affecteth to walk alone. Two are better than one; and why, see Ecc 4:9; Ecc 4:11-12, with the notes.

And the barren land his dwellings] Heb. The salt place, that is, barren as if it had been sowen with salt, Jdg 9:45 Psa 107:33-34. Salt is taken in Scripture to be both a cause and sign of barrenness, Deu 29:23 Zep 2:9, though among us there are some kind of soils, they say, that are manured with salt, and thereby made fruitful; but in those hot and dry countries it was otherwise. In these barren places God provideth for the wild ass; and although he hath there but little food, yet he is lusty and nimble, and sayeth himself both from the hunter and from the ravage of other fierce and savage creatures, by his strength and swiftness. Xenophon telleth us, That Cyrus passing through the wilderness of Arabia, with his horsemen, there were many of these wild asses (Cyropaed. l. 3); who, being stirred, ran so swiftly away, that some horsemen following could not come near them; then standing still; but when the horsemen approached they fell again running as before, thus deluding them. Haec igitur bestia non mediocre mirabilis Dei potentiae vestigium est, saith Brentius. In this beast, therefore, there is much of God’s great power and providence to be seen. And from hence also we may gather, saith another interpreter, that a little is enough to sustain men in the wilderness of this world. As the children of Israel also were here sustained, having nothing to eat but what God sent them down from heaven from day to day, forty years together. Nature is content with a little, grace with less.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 39:6-8. Whose house I have made the wilderness — Which uses and loves to dwell in desert lands; and the barren land his dwellings — Called barren, not simply, for then he must be starved there, but comparatively uncultivated, and therefore, in a great measure, unfruitful. He scorneth — Hebrew, ישׂחק, jischak, he laugheth at the multitude of the city — He mentions the city, rather than the country, because there is the greatest multitude of people to pursue, overtake, and subject him. The meaning is, He fears them not when they pursue him, because he is swift and can easily escape them. Or, he values them not, nor any provisions which he might have from them, but prefers a vagrant, solitary life in the wilderness before any thing they can offer him. Or he disdains to submit himself to them, and resolutely maintains his own freedom. Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver — Hebrew, נגשׂ, noges, the task-master, or exacter of labour, that is, he will not be brought to receive his yoke, nor to do his drudgery, nor to answer to his cries or commands, as tame asses are compelled to do. The range of the mountains — יתור הרים, jethur harim, excellentissimum montium, what is most excellent in the mountains; or, as the word may signify, That which he searcheth out, or findeth in the mountains. He prefers that mean provision and hardship, with his freedom, before the fattest pastures with servitude.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They bring forth with great difficulty.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

barren--literally, "salt," that is, unfruitful. (So Psa 107:34, Margin.)

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Whose house] Habitation, or place of resort.

The barren land] מלחה melechah, the salt land, or salt places, as in the margin. See above.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whose house I have made the wilderness,.... Appointed that to be his place of residence, as being agreeable to his nature, at a distance from men, and in the less danger of being brought into subjection by them. Such were the deserts of Arabia; where, as Xenophon (n) relates, were many of these creatures, and which he represents as very swift: and Leo Africanus (o) says, great numbers of them are found in deserts, and on the borders of deserts; hence said to be used to the wilderness Jer 2:24;

and the barren land his dwellings; not entirely barren, for then it could not live there; but comparatively, with respect to land that is fruitful: or "salt land" (p); for, as Pliny (q) says, every place where salt is, is barren.

(n) De Expedition. Cyri, l. 1. (o) Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 752. (p) "salsuginem", Montanus; "salsuginosam terram", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (q) Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whose house I have made - God had appointed its home in the desert.

And the barren land his dwellings - Margin, as in Hebrew “salt places.” Such places were usually barren. Psa 107:34, “he turneth a fruitful land into barrenness.” Hebrew “saltness.” Thus, Virgil, Geor. ii. 238-240:

Salsa antem tellus, et quae, perhibetur amara.

Frugibus infelix: ea nec mansuescit arando;

Nec Baccho genus, aut pomis sua nomina servat.

Compare Pliny, Nat. His. 31, 7, Deu 29:23.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Barren. Literally, "salt." (Haydock) --- This is of a nitrous quality, which renders those countries barren. The salt in snow and dung gives warmth and fruitfulness.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Who useth and loveth to dwell in desert lands, Jer 2:24; Hos 8:3,9.

The barren land; called barren, not simply, for then he must be starved there; but comparatively, unmanaged, and therefore in a great measure unfruitful land.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Barren land — Literally, salt waste. The deserts in the East are frequently incrusted with salt.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whose house I have made the wilderness. The Mesopotamian regions inhabited by the Asinus hemippus are those vast stretches of rolling plain, treeless, producing a few aromatic shrubs and much wormwood, which intervene between the Sinjar mountain-range and the Babylonian alluvium. Here the wild ass was seen by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, in company with ostriches, gazelles, and bustards (Xen., "Anab.," 1:5); and here Sir Austin Layard also made its acquaintance ("Nineveh and Babylon," p. 270). The Asians onager frequents the deserts of Khorassan and Beloochistan, which are even more barren than the Mesepotamian. And the barren land his dwellings; rather, the salt land (see the Revised Version). The great desert of Khorassan is largely impregnated with salt, and in places encrusted with it. The wild ass licks salt with avidity.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

barren land

Heb. "salt places."

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.