“Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.”
God concludes the eagle passage: 'Her young ones feast on blood, and wherever the slain are, there is she.' This final verse of chapter 39 characterizes the eagle's feeding, particularly its connection to death and slaughter. The eagle's young feed on blood; the eagle goes where the slain are. The verse explicitly connects the eagle, a creature God has created, to death and violence. Wherever killing occurs, the eagle appears. The verse establishes that divine creation has woven together predators and prey, violence and death, creating a cosmos in which creatures thrive by consuming the dead bodies of others. Job did not create such a system; God has. The verse is the culminating image of God's speeches about animals: not the ostrich running swiftly, not the horse leaping into battle, but the eagle feasting on the corpses of the slain. Divine creation includes death, violence, and predation as fundamental features. The implicit question becomes explicit: if divine creation fundamentally includes violence, death, and predation, on what basis can Job complain that his suffering is unjust?
Church Fathers on Job 39:30
Her young ones suck up blood. As if it were plainly said; She herself indeed feeds on the contemplation of His Godhead, but because her hearers cannot understand the mysteries of the Godhead, they are satiated with hearing of the blood of the Lord Crucified. For to suck up blood, is to reverence the weaknesses of the Lord’s Passion. Hence it is, that the same Paul, who, as we said a little before, had soared to the secrets of the third heaven, said to his disciples; For I…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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