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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 39:20

Did you make it able to jump like a locust or snort so loudly that it scares people?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Horse;   Locust;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Beasts;   Horse, the;   Insects;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Horses;   Nose;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Animals;   Glory;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Horse;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Caterpillar;   Horse;   Insects;   Transportation and Travel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Horse;   Knowledge;   Locust;   Nature;   Nose, Nostrils;   World;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Horse;   Locust;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Glory;   Horse;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Greyhound;   Horse;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Locust;   Neesing;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Horse;   Locust;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Do you make him leap like a locust?His proud snorting fills one with terror.
Hebrew Names Version
Have you made him to leap as a arbeh? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
King James Version
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
English Standard Version
Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying.
New Century Version
Do you make the horse jump like a locust? It scares people with its proud snorting.
New English Translation
Do you make it leap like a locust? Its proud neighing is terrifying!
Amplified Bible
"Have you [Job] made him leap like a locust? The majesty of his snorting [nostrils] is terrible.
New American Standard Bible
"Do you make him leap like locusts? His majestic snorting is frightening.
World English Bible
Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Hast thou made him afraid as the grashopper? his strong neying is fearefull.
Legacy Standard Bible
Do you make him leap like the locust?His splendid snorting is terrible.
Berean Standard Bible
Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
Contemporary English Version
Did you make them able to jump like grasshoppers or to frighten people with their snorting?
Complete Jewish Bible
Did you make him able to leap like a locust? Its majestic snorting is frightening!
Darby Translation
Dost thou make him to leap as a locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.
George Lamsa Translation
Can you make him move like the locust? Or can you make him afraid?
Good News Translation
Did you make them leap like locusts and frighten people with their snorting?
Lexham English Bible
Do you make it leap like the locust? The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
Literal Translation
Can you make him leap like a locust; the majesty of his snorting is terrifying?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
that he letteth him self be dryuen forth like a greshopper, where as the stoute neyenge that he maketh, is fearfull?
American Standard Version
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible.
Bible in Basic English
Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible.
King James Version (1611)
Canst thou make him afraid as a grashopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Canst thou make him afrayde as a grashopper? where as the stoute neying that he maketh is fearefull.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And hast thou clad him in perfect armour, and made his breast glorious with courage?
English Revised Version
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? the glory of his snorting is terrible.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether thou schalt reyse hym as locustis? The glorie of hise nosethirlis is drede.
Update Bible Version
Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible.
Webster's Bible Translation
Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils [is] terrible.
New King James Version
Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.
New Living Translation
Did you give it the ability to leap like a locust? Its majestic snorting is terrifying!
New Life Bible
Do you make him jump like the locust? The powerful noise he makes with his nostrils fills men with fear.
New Revised Standard
Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Couldst thou cause him to leap like a locust? The majesty of his snort, is a terror!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wilt thou lift him up like the locusts? the glory of his nostrils is terror.
Revised Standard Version
Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.
Young's Literal Translation
Dost thou cause him to rush as a locust? The majesty of his snorting [is] terrible.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrible.

Contextual Overview

19 "Did you give the horse its strength? Did you put the mane on its neck? 20 Did you make it able to jump like a locust or snort so loudly that it scares people? 21 A horse is happy to be so strong. It scratches the ground with its foot and runs into battle. 22 It laughs at fear; nothing makes it afraid! It does not run away from battle. 23 The soldier's quiver shakes on the horse's side. The spear and weapons its rider carries shine in the sun. 24 The horse gets very excited and races over the ground. When it hears the trumpet blow, it cannot stand still. 25 When the trumpet sounds, it snorts, ‘Hurray!' It can smell the battle from far away and hear the shouts of commanders with all the other sounds of battle.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the glory: Job 41:20, Job 41:21, Jeremiah 8:16

terrible: Heb. terrors

Cross-References

Genesis 39:1
The traders who bought Joseph took him down to Egypt. They sold him to the captain of Pharaoh's guard, Potiphar.
Genesis 39:3
Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and that the Lord helped Joseph be successful in everything he did.
Genesis 39:9
My master has made me almost equal to him in his house. I cannot sleep with his wife! That is wrong! It is a sin against God."
Genesis 39:14
She called to the men outside and said, "Look! This Hebrew slave was brought here to make fun of us. He came in and tried to attack me, but I screamed.
Genesis 39:18
But when he came near me, I screamed. He ran away, but he left his coat."
Genesis 39:19
Joseph's master listened to what his wife said, and he became very angry.
Genesis 39:21
The Lord was with Joseph and continued to show his kindness to him, so the commander of the prison guards began to like Joseph.
Genesis 39:22
The commander of the guards put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners. Joseph was their leader, but he still did the same work they did.
Genesis 40:15
I was kidnapped and taken from the land of my people, the Hebrews. I have done nothing wrong! I should not be in prison."
Psalms 76:10
Even human anger can bring you honor when you use it to punish your enemies.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?.... Which is frightened at every noise, and at any approach of men; but not so the horse; or canst thou move him, or cause him to skip and jump, or rather leap like a grasshopper? that is, hast thou given, or canst thou give him the faculty of leaping over hedges and ditches, for which the horse is famous? so Neptune's war horses are said q to be ευσκαρθμοι, good leapers;

the glory of his nostrils [is] terrible: which may be understood of his sneezing, snorting, pawing, and neighing, when his nostrils are broad, spread, and enlarged; and especially when enraged and in battle, when he foams and fumes, and his breath comes out of his nostrils like smoke r, and is very terrible.

q Homeri Iliad. 13. v. 31. r "Iguescunt patulae nares". Claudian. in 4. Consul. Honor.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? - Or, rather, “as a locust” - כארבה kā'arbeh. This is the word which is commonly applied to the locust considered as gregarious, or as appearing in great numbers (from רבה râbâh, “to be multiplied”). On the variety of the species of locusts, see Bochart “Hieroz.” P. ii. Lib. iv. c. 1ff The Hebrew word here rendered “make afraid” (רעשׁ râ‛ash) means properly “to be moved, to be shaken,” and hence, to tremble, to be afraid. In the Hiphil, the form used here, it means to cause to tremble, to shake; and then “to cause to leap,” as a horse; and the idea here is, Canst thou cause the horse, an animal so large and powerful, to leap with the agility of a locust? See Gesenius, “Lex.” The allusion here is to the leaping or moving of the locusts as they advance in the appearance of squadrons or troops; but the comparison is not so much that of a single horse to a single locust, as of cavalry or a company of war-horses to an army of locusts; and the point of comparison turns on the elasticity or agility of the motion of cavalry advancing to the field of battle.

The sense is, that God could cause that rapid and beautiful movement in animals so large and powerful as the horse, but that it was wholly beyond the power of man to effect it. It is quite common in the East to compare a horse with a locust, and travelers have spoken of the remarkable resemblance between the heads of the two. This comparison occurs also in the Bible; see Joel 2:4, “The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen so shall they run;” Revelation 9:7. The Italians, from this resemblance, call the locust “cavaletta,” or little horse. Sir W. Ouseley says, “Zakaria Cavini divides the locusts into two classes, like horsemen and footmen, ‘mounted and pedestrian.’ “Niebuhr says that he heard from a Bedouin near Bassorah, a particular comparison of the locust with other animals; but he thought it a mere fancy of the Arabs, until he heard it repeated at Bagdad. He compared the head of a locust to that of a horse, the breast to that of a lion, the feet to those of a camel, the belly with that of a serpent, the tail with that of a scorpion, and the feelers with the hair of a virgin; see the Pictorial Bible on Joel 2:4.

The glory of his nostrils is terrible - Margin, as in Hebrew, “terrors.” That is, it is fitted to inspire terror or awe. The reference is to the wide-extended and fiery looking nostrils of the horse when animated, and impatient, for action. So Lucretius, L. v.:

Et fremitum patulis sub naribus edit ad arma.

So Virgil, “Georg.” iii. 87:

Collectumque premens voluit sub naribus ignem.

Claudian, in iv. “Consulatu Honorii:”

Ignescunt patulae nares.


 
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