Job 39:28

abideth--securely (Psa 91:1); it occupies the same abode mostly for life.

crag--literally, "tooth" (Sa1 14:5, Margin).

strong place--citadel, fastness.

The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful power and providences of God, as well as the beasts of the earth; God here refers particularly to two stately ones: - 1. The hawk, a noble bird of great strength and sagacity, and yet a bird of prey, Job 39:26. This bird is here taken notice of for her flight, which is swift and strong, and especially for the course she steers towards the south, whither she follows the sun in winter, out of the colder countries in the north, especially when she is to cast her plumes and renew them. This is her wisdom, and it was God that gave her this wisdom, not man. Perhaps the extraordinary wisdom of the hawk's flight after her prey was not used then for men's diversion and recreation, as it has been since. It is a pity that the reclaimed hawk, which is taught to fly at man's command and to make him sport, should at any time be abused to the dishonour of God, since it is from God that she receives that wisdom which makes her flight entertaining and serviceable. 2. The eagle, a royal bird, and yet a bird of prey too, the permission of which, nay, the giving of power to which, may help to reconcile us to the prosperity of oppressors among men. The eagle is here taken notice of, (1.) For the height of her flight. No bird soars so high, has so strong a wind, nor can so well bear the light of the sun. Now, "Doth she mount at thy command? Job 39:27. Is it by any strength she has from thee? or dost thou direct her flight? No; it is by the natural power and instinct God has given her that she will soar out of thy sight, much more out of thy call." (2.) For the strength of her nest. Her house is her castle and strong-hold; she makes it on high and on the rock, the crag of the rock (Job 39:28), which sets her and her young out of the reach of danger. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rock; but I will bring thee down thence, saith the Lord, Jer 49:16. The higher bad men sit above the resentments of the earth the nearer they ought to think themselves to the vengeance of Heaven. (3.) For her quicksightedness (Job 39:29): Her eyes behold afar off, not upwards, but downwards, in quest of her prey. In this she is an emblem of a hypocrite, who, while, in the profession of religion, he seems to rise towards heaven, keeps his eye and heart upon the prey on earth, some temporal advantage, some widow's house or other that he hopes to devour, under pretence of devotion. (4.) For the way she has of maintaining herself and her young. She preys upon living animals, which she seizes and tears to pieces, and thence carries to her young ones, which are taught to suck up blood; they do it by instinct, and know no better; but for men that have reason and conscience to thirst after blood is what could scarcely be believed if there had not been in every age wretched instances of it. She also preys upon the dead bodies of men: Where the slain are, there is she, These birds of prey (in another sense than the horse, Job 39:25) smell the battle afar off. Therefore, when a great slaughter is to be made among the enemies of the church, the fowls are invited to the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings and captains, Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18. Our Saviour refers to this instinct of the eagle, Mat 24:28. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Every creature will make towards that which is its proper food; for he that provides the creatures their food has implanted in them that inclination. These and many such instances of natural power and sagacity in the inferior creatures, which we cannot account for, oblige us to confess our own weakness and ignorance and to give glory to God as the fountain of all being, power, wisdom, and perfection.

Upon the crag of the rock - שן סלע shen sela, the tooth of the rock, i.e., some projecting part, whither adventurous man himself dares not follow her.
And the strong place - ומצודה umetsudah. Mr. Good translates this word ravine, and joins it to Job 39:29, thus: "And thence espieth the ravine: her eyes trace the prey afar off."

She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. Where she and her young are safe: so Pliny (r) says, eagles make their nests in rocks, even in the precipices of them, as the philosopher quoted in the preceding verse; and here on the tooth, edge, or precipice of the rock, which is inaccessible, and so like a strong fortified place.

(r) Nat. Hist. l. 10. 3.

Which she doth partly for the security of herself and her young; and partly that she may thence have the better prospect to discern her prey, as it followeth.

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
Doth it spread its wings towards the south?
27 Or is it at thy command that the eagle soareth aloft,
And buildeth its nest on high?
28 It inhabiteth the rock, and buildeth its nest
Upon the crag of the rock and fastness.
29 From thence it seeketh food,
Its eyes see afar off.
30 And its young ones suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there is it.
The ancient versions are unanimous in testifying that, according to the signification of the root, נץ signifies the hawk (which is significant in the Hieroglyphics): the soaring one, the high-flyer (comp. Arab. nṣṣ, to rise, struggle forwards, and Arab. nḍḍ, to raise the wings for flight). The Hiph. יאבר- (jussive form in the question, as Job 13:27) might signify: to get feathers, plumescere (Targ., Jer.), but that gives a tame question; wherefore Gregory understands the plumescit of the Vulgate of moulting, for which purpose the hawk seeks the sunny side. But האביר alone, by itself, cannot signify "to get new feathers;" moreover, an annual moulting is common to all birds, and prominence is alone given to the new feathering of the eagle in the Old Testament, Psa 103:5; Mic 1:16, comp. Isa 40:31 (lxx πτεροφυήσουσιν ὡς ἀετοί).
(Note: Less unfavourable to this rendering is the following, that אברה signifies the long feathers, and אבר the wing that is composed of them (perhaps, since the Talm. אברים signifies wings and limbs, artus, from אבר = הבר, Arab. hbr, to divide, furnish with joints), although נוצה (from נצה, to fly) is the more general designation of the feathers of birds.)
Thus, then, the point of the question will lie in לתימן: the hawk is a bird of passage, God has endowed it with instinct to migrate to the south as the winter season is approaching.
In Job 39:27 the circle of the native figures taken from animal life, which began with the lion, the king of quadrupeds, is now closed with the eagle, the king of birds. It is called נשׁר, from נשׁר, Arab. nsr, vellere; as also vultur (by virtue of a strong power of assimilation = vultor) is derived from vellere, - a common name of the golden eagle, the lamb's vulture, the carrion-kite (Cathartes percnopterus), and indeed also of other kinds of kites and falcons. There is nothing to prevent our understanding the eagle κατ ̓ εξοχήν, viz., the golden eagle (Aquila chrysatos), in the present passage; for even to this, corpses, though not already putrified, are a welcome prey. In Job 39:27 we must translate either: and is it at thy command that ... ? or: is it so that (as in הכי) at thy command ... ? The former is more natural here. מצוּדה, Job 39:28, signifies prop. specula (from צוּד, to spy); then, however, as Arab. masâd (referred by the original lexicons to masada), the high hill, and the mountain-top. The rare form יעלעוּ, for which Ges., Olsh., and others wish to read לעלעוּ or ילעלעוּ (from לוּע, deglutire), is to be derived from עלע, a likewise secondary form out of עלעל (from עוּל, to suck, to give suck),
(Note: The Arab. ‛alla does not belong here: it gains the signification iterum bibere from the primary signification of "coming over or upon anything," which branches out in various ways: to take a second, third, etc., drink after the first. More on this point on Isa 3:4.
Supplementary note: The quadriliteral עלעל to be supposed, is not to be derived from עלל, and is not, as it recently has been, to be compared with Arab. ‛ll, "to drink." This Arab. verb does not signify "to drink" at all, but, among many other branchings out of its general primary signification, related to עלה, Arab. ‛lâ, also signifies: "to take a second, third, etc., drink after the first," concerning which more details will be given elsewhere. עלעל goes back to עוּל, lactare, with the middle vowel, whence also עויל, Job 16:11; Job 12:18; Job 21:11 (which see). The Hauran dialect has ‛âlûl (plur. ‛awâlı̂l), like the Hebr. עולל (עולל = מעולל), in the signification juvenis, and especially juvencus (comp. infra, p. 689, note 3, "but they are heifers," Arab. illâ ‛awâlı̂l).)
like שׁרשׁ out of שׁרשׁר (from שׁרר, Arab. srr, to make firm), Ew. 118, a, comp. Frst, Handwrterbuch, sub עוּל, since instances are wanting in favour of עלע being formed out of לעלע (Jesurun, p. 164). Schult. not inappropriately compares even גלג = גלגל in גּלגּתא, Γολγοθᾶ = גּלגּלתּא. The concluding words, Job 39:30, are perhaps echoed in Mat 24:28. High up on a mountain-peak the eagle builds its eyrie, and God has given it a remarkably sharp vision, to see far into the depth below the food that is there for it and its young ones. Not merely from the valley in the neighbourhood of its eyrie, but often from distant plains, which lie deep below on the other side of the mountain range, it seizes its prey, and rises with it even to the clouds, and bears it home to its nest.
(Note: Vid., the beautiful description in Charles Boner's Forest Creatures, 1861.)
Thus does God work exceeding strangely, but wonderously, apparently by contradictions, but in truth most harmoniously and wisely, in the natural world.