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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025
the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

New Life Version

Job 39:20

Do you make him jump like the locust? The powerful noise he makes with his nostrils fills men with fear.

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.
Easy-to-Read Version
Did you make it able to jump like a locust or snort so loudly that it scares people?
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 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 "Do you give the horse his strength? Do you dress his neck with long hair? 20 Do you make him jump like the locust? The powerful noise he makes with his nostrils fills men with fear. 21 He hits his foot against the ground in the valley, and has joy in his strength. He goes out to meet the battle. 22 He laughs at fear and is not afraid. He does not turn back from the sword. 23 The arrows and spears he carries make noise as they hit together. 24 He runs fast over the ground with shaking and anger. He cannot stand still at the sound of the horn. 25 When the horn sounds, he laughs without fear. He smells the battle from far away. He hears the thunder of the captains, and the war cry.

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
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt by the Ishmaelites. And Potiphar, an Egyptian leader, the head of the soldiers of Pharaoh's house, bought him from the Ishmaelites.
Genesis 39:3
Now his boss saw that the Lord was with him. He saw how the Lord made all that Joseph did go well.
Genesis 39:9
There is no one more important in this house than I. And he has held nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this sinful thing, and sin against God?"
Genesis 39:14
she called the men of her house. And she said to them, "See, this Hebrew has been brought to us to make fun of us. He came in to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice.
Genesis 39:18
But when I called out in a loud voice, he left his coat with me and ran outside."
Genesis 39:19
When his boss heard his wife's story and her words, "This is what your servant did to me," he became very angry.
Genesis 39:21
But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him kindness. He gave him favor in the eyes of the man who watched over the prison.
Genesis 39:22
The head of the prison put all the men who were in prison into Joseph's care. So whatever was done there was because of Joseph.
Genesis 40:15
For I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews. And here also I have done nothing for which they should put me in prison."
Psalms 76:10
For the anger of man will praise You. And You will keep what is left of anger around You.

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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