Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_503.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-22 | 8KB | 163 lines

\*Ver. 9. \\Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee\\, &c.]
Whether there is or ever was such a creature, as described
under the name of an unicorn, is a question:
it is thought the accounts of it are for the most part
fabulous; though Vartomannus {y} says he saw two at
Mecca, which came from Ethiopia, the largest of
which had a horn in his forehead three cubits long.
There are indeed several creatures which may be called
%monocerots%, who have but one horn; as the %rhinoceros%,
and the Indian horses and asses {z}. The Arabic geographer {a}
speaks of a beast in the Indies, called %carcaddan%,
which is lesser than an elephant and bigger
than a buffalo; having in the middle of the forehead
an horn long and thick, as much as two hands can
grasp: and not only on land, but in the sea are such,
as the %nahr whal%, or Greenland whale {b}; but then
they do not answer to the creature so called in Scripture:
and, besides, this must be a creature well known
to Job, as it was to the Israelites; and must be a strong
creature, from the account that gives of it, and not
to be taken as here. And Solinus {c} speaks of such %monocerots%
or unicorns, which may be killed, but cannot
be taken, and were never known to be in any man's
possession alive; and so Aelianus {d} says of the like creature,
that it never was remembered that any one of
them had been taken. Some think the %rhinoceros%
is meant; but that, though a very strong creature,
and so may be thought fit for the uses after mentioned,
yet may be tamed; whereas the creature here is represented
as untamable, and not to be subdued, and
brought under a yoke and managed; and besides, it is
not very probable that it was known by Job. Bochart {e}
takes it to be the %oryx%, a creature of the goat kind;
but to me it seems more likely to be of the ox kind,
to be similar to them, and so might be thought to do
the business of one; and the rather, because of its
great strength, and yet could not be brought to do it,
nor be trusted with it: for the questions concerning it
relate to the work of oxen; and as the wild ass is opposed
to the tame one in the preceding paragraph, so
here the wild ox to a tame one. And both Strabo {f} and
Diodorus Siculus {g} relate, that among the Troglodytes,
a people that dwelt near the Red sea, and not far from
Arabia, where Job lived, were abundance of wild oxen
or bulls, and which far exceeded the common ones in
largeness and swiftness; and the creature called the
seem in the original, has its name from height. Now
the question is, could Job take one of these wild bulls
or oxen, and tame it, and make it willing to do any
work or service he should choose to put it to? No, he
could not;
\*\\or abide by thy crib\\? manger or stall, as
the tame or common ox will; who, when it has done
its labour, is glad to be led to its stall and feed, and
then lie down and rest, and there abide; see \\#Isa 1:3\\;
but not so the wild ox.

\*Ver. 10. \\Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band
in the furrow\\? &c.] Put the yoke and harness upon
him, and fasten it to the plough to draw it, that he
may make furrows with it in the field, or plough up
the ground as the tame ox does? thou canst not;
\*\\or will he harrow the valleys after thee\\? draw the harrow
which is used after ploughing to break the clods, and
make the land smooth and even? he will not: valleys
are particularly mentioned, because arable land is
usually in them; see \\#Ps 65:13\\.

\*Ver. 11. \\Wilt thou trust him, because his strength [is]
great\\? &c.] ]No; tame oxen are employed because
they are strong to labour, \\#Ps 144:14\\; and they
are to be trusted, in ploughing or treading out the
corn, under direction, because they are manageable,
and will attend to business with constancy; but the
wild ox, though stronger, and so fitter for labour, is
yet not to be trusted, because unruly and unmanageable:
if that sort of wild oxen called %uri% could be
thought to be meant, for which Bootius {h} contends,
Caesar's account of them would agree with this character
of the %reem%, as to his great strength: he says of
them {i}, they are in bigness a little lesser than elephants,
of the kind, colour, and shape of a bull; they are of
great strength and of great swiftness, and not to be
tamed;
\*\\or wilt thou leave thy labour to him\\? to
plough thy fields, to harrow thy lands, and to bring
home the ripe corn? as in \\#Job 39:12\\; thou wilt not.

\*Ver. 12. \\Wilt thou believe him that he will bring
home thy seed\\? &c.] Draw in the cart, and bring
home the ripe sheaves of corn, as the tame ox does?
no; thou knowest him too well to believe he will
bring it home in safety;
\*\\and gather [it into] thy barn\\;
to be trodden out, which used to be done by oxen in
those times: if therefore Job could not manage such
unruly creatures as the wild ass and the wild ox, and
make them serviceable to him, how unfit must he be
to govern the world, or to direct in the affairs of Providence?

\*Ver. 13. \\[Gavest thou] the goodly wings unto the peacocks\\? &c.]
Rather %ostriches%, as the Vulgate Latin and
Tigurine versions render it; some render it, %the wing
of those that exult is joyful%, so Montanus; that is, of
the ostriches; who, in confidence of their wings,
exult and glory over the horse and his rider, \\#Job 39:18\\;
for peacocks are not remarkable for their wings, but
for their tails; whereas the wings of the ostrich are
as sails unto them, as several writers observe {k}; and
with which they rather run, or row,than fly: hence it
is called by Plautus {l} %passer marinus%, the sea sparrow:
and the feathers of it are more goodly than those of
the wings of the peacock; and besides, it is a question
whether the peacock was where Job lived,
and in his times; since it is originally from the Indies,
and from thence it was brought to Judea in the times
of Solomon; and was not known in Greece and Rome {m}
until later ages. Alexander the Great, when he first
saw them in India, was surprised at them; and yet
Solon {n} speaks of them in his time as seen by him,
which was at least two hundred years before Alexander;
though at Rome not common in the times
of Horace {o}, who calls a peacock %rara avis%; and speaks
of them as sold for a great price; but ostriches were
well known in Arabia, where Job lived, as is testified
by Xenophon {p}, Strabo {q}, and Diodorus Siculus {r}.
Moreover, what is said in the following verses is only
true of the ostrich, and that only is spoken of here
and there, as it follows;
\*\\or wings and feathers unto
the ostrich\\; or whose wings and feathers are like the
storks; and so Bochart renders the words, truly they
have %the wing and feather of the stork%; the colours of
which are black and white, from whence it has its
name \~pelagrov\~ {s} in Greek; and so Leo Africanus {t} says
of the ostriches, that they have in their wings large
feathers of a black and white colour; and this was a
creature well known in Arabia {u}, in which Job lived.

{y} Navigat. l. 1. c. 19.
{z} Vid. Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 26.
{a} Nub. Clim. 1. par. 8.
{b} Ludolf. Ethiop. Hist. l. 1. c. 10. Of this narhual, or sea unicorn,
see the Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 9. p. 71, 72.
{c} Polyhistor. c. 65.
{d} De Animal. l. 16. c. 20.
{e} Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 27. col. 969, &c.
{f} Geograph. l. 16. p. 533.
{g} Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 175.
{h} Animadvers. Sacr. l. 3. c. 1. s. 14.
{i} Comment. de Bello Gall. l. 6. c. 27.
{k} Xenophon. de Expedit. Cyri, l. 1. Aelian. de. Animal. l. 2. c. 77.
{l} Persa, Act. 2. Sc. 2. v. 17.
{m} Aelian. de Animal. l. 5. c. 21.
{n} Laert. Vit. Solon. l. 1. c. 2.
{o} Sermon. l. 2. Sat. 2. v. 25, 26. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 20.
Macrob. Saturnal. 50:3. 100:13.
{p} Ut supra.
{q} Geograph. l. 16. p. 531.
{r} Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 133.
{s} Suidas in voce \~pelagrov\~.
{t} Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 766.
{u} Diodor. Sicul. ut supra.