Job — Chapter 39

Numquid nosti tempus partus ibicum

On the wonders of animal generation: "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth?" Corderius provides a natural-historical commentary on the ibex (mountain goat), drawing on Pliny (Nat. Hist. VIII.53) and Albertus Magnus (De Animalibus). The ibex has remarkable agility, its enormous curved horns serving to break its fall from cliff-heights. The calving of the does occurs in secret, unobserved by man. On vv. 5-8: the wild ass (onager) — free, untameable, living in the salt flats and waste lands, contemptuous of the city and the driver's shout — is a figure of natural freedom that God alone built into the creature. Corderius notes the theological point: God has given each creature its proper nature and liberty; the Creator alone fully understands the inner laws of the creatures he made. Human inability to replicate or fully understand these natural processes is evidence of the limited scope of human knowledge.

Numquid volet rhinoceros servire tibi

On the wild ox (rhinoceros) and the ostrich: "Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?" Corderius provides natural-historical commentary on the rhinoceros/wild ox, drawing on Pliny and ancient sources. The wild ox represents invincible natural strength placed outside human control — a constant reminder of the limits of human dominion. On vv. 13-18: the ostrich — which abandons its eggs (v. 14-15), is apparently cruel to its young (v. 16), yet can run faster than a horse (v. 18) — is treated as a figure of those who follow natural intelligence without divine wisdom. God explicitly states: "Because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding" (v. 17) — this means God has withheld a particular faculty from the ostrich by design, not by defect; each creature has exactly the endowments its Creator chose for it. Corderius draws the lesson: divine wisdom in creating diversity of natures must be admired, not questioned.

Numquid dabis equo fortitudinem

On the warhorse and the eagle: "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying." Corderius gives an enthusiastic natural-historical and symbolic commentary on the warhorse. The horse's response to the trumpet, his excitement in battle, his snorting, his pawing of the earth — all are described with literary appreciation. He draws on Vegetius, Pliny, and ancient hippological sources. On vv. 27-30: the eagle, nesting in inaccessible heights, looking far for prey, with young ones that drink blood and gather where the slain are — Corderius follows the Fathers in seeing the eagle as a figure of Christ (the aquila in aeternum renovans, the eagle that renews its youth, Ps. 103:5), whose nest is on high (the eternal generation of the Son) and who descends to feed on the flesh and blood of the Eucharist. He notes the mysterious phrase "wherever the slain body is, there the eagles will gather" (Matt. 24:28): a figure of the gathering of the faithful around the Eucharist.