Job 39:19 - Exposition

Hast thou given the horse strength? (comp. Psalms 147:10 ). Geburah means, however, more than "strength." It includes courage and all martial excellence. Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Many objections have been taken to this expression; and endeavours have been made to show that the word used ( דַעְמָה ) does not mean "thunder," but" a tremulous motion," "quivering muscles and a tossing mane," or else "scorn," "indignation." But as רַעַם always means "thunder" ( Job 26:14 ; Job 39:25 ; Psalms 77:19 : Psalms 81:8 ; Psalms 145:7 ; Isaiah 29:6 ), it seems unlikely that רעמה means anything else. To the objection that the metaphor is "incongruous" (Professor Lee), it would appear to be enough to reply that one of our greatest prose-poets has seen in it peculiar fitness. So true every way '" says Carlyle, on the passage: "true eyesight and vision for all things; material things, not less than spiritual; "the horse—Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? '".