The Bible Says
Job 39:19-25 Meaning

In Job 39:19-25, God continues His “zoo tour” to demonstrate to Job his lack of understanding compared to God’s infinite perspective, by turning Job’s attention to the war horse. God introduces the new subject by asking, “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?” (v. 19).

Earlier, God used some untamable animals, the wild donkey and the wild ox, as illustrations. Now He turns to an animal that can be tamed and which is of great benefit to humans. Yet even then, although we may train a horse, shoe it, or tack it with gear, we are harnessing what God created. The horse’s raw power—his might—is a gift from God. With it, up until only a little over a hundred years ago, civilizations have been built.

God also points to the horse’s beauty, inquiring “Do you clothe his neck with a mane?” Beauty and force are wrapped together in the horse, and both come from the Creator’s hand. The tossing mane is more than decoration—it’s a reminder that God delights to make strength beautiful and beauty strong, reflecting His own nature in what He has made.

The Lord presses further: “Do you make him leap like the locust?” (v. 20). Horses explode into motion with ease. God compares that launch to a locust swarm rising at once—pure, coordinated vigor. Job has seen that leap, but he did not engineer it. God did.

Then God says of the war horse, “His majestic snorting is terrible” (v. 20). The war horse’s snorting is a majestic sound that shakes the air. That terrible sound is focused energy, channeled by the Maker. It is the horse anticipating the battle and raring for the fight. The inference continues unabated: if God can design courage into a creature, can Job trust God to sustain him when courage fails?

The One who gave the snort of courage to the horse is the One who rules the outcome. God describes the war horse: “He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He goes out to meet the weapons” (v. 21).

We might picture a broad valley used as a battlefield. Lines are forming, commanders are shouting. We then zoom in on the horse, who paws at the ground, impatient to run and meet the battle. He rejoices in his strength, eager to display the courage and strength God gave him. He doesn’t shrink from the clash; he goes out to meet the weapons arrayed against him.

This is courage by design. God is telling Job: I know the shape of courage, because I made it. When Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), He embodied that same forward-lean—going to meet the cross that would save us. He displayed the same sort of great courage when He prayed “yet not My will, but Yours be done” during His time of dread in anticipating the cross (Luke 22:42). We see God’s affection for courage as a value in Revelation 21:8.

The Lord continues His description of the war horse, “He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; And he does not turn back from the sword” (v. 22). The war horse does not make fear vanish; he simply does not yield to it. He advances into the danger others avoid. What would cause others to shrink back, the war horse laughs at. That he does not turn back from the sword means that he does not fear death.

The war horse is an illustration of the character God calls all believers to have in order to overcome as He overcame. In Revelation 1:3, God promises a great blessing to all who hear, understand, and follow what is written thereafter. And the primary thing God exhorts believers to do in order to gain a great blessing is to overcome as Jesus overcame; to be faithful witnesses who do not fear loss, rejection, or death (Revelation 3:21).

The horse’s steadfastness is a gift; but believers have been given the same spirit. “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). And horses are naturally skittish; they have to be trained in order to unleash the courage within. Similarly, we as believers require training in order to nurture and develop the capacity which God has given us to walk in great courage. Paul exhorts us to train daily, taking up the weapons of spiritual warfare each day (Ephesians 6:10-18).

God paints the noise of battle: “The quiver rattles against him, The flashing spear and javelin” (v. 23). The description that the quiver rattles against him depicts the archer’s sheath of arrows emptying upon the charging cavalry. Meanwhile, the spear and javelin sail through the air and flash in the sun. The horse is not cushioned from the battle’s harshness; he runs through it. The Lord is saying to Job, “I am not blind to the world you inhabit. I know its clang and glare—and I am God there, too.”

God’s rule is not limited to quiet fields. He governs the front lines, where danger and decision meet. History’s empires demonstrate that their weapons did not finally decide outcomes; the Lord does (Proverbs 16:9, 21:31). Job’s life has become a battlefield of accusations and pain; God is present even amid rattling quivers and flashing spears and javelins.

The Lord adds more detail to the picture of the war horse, “With shaking and rage he races over the ground, And he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet” (v. 24). The trumpet sounds to marshal troops into battle, and the horse surges; he does not stand still and remain parked when the call comes. He lunges, eagerly meeting the call. He races over the ground to meet the enemy. Rather than quaking in fear, he has the shaking of rage.

God concludes this section on the war horse by saying, “As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’ And he smells the battle from afar, The thunder of the captains and the war cry” (v. 25).

The Hebrew word (הֶאָח, “he'āḥ”) translated Aha! represents an expression of joy; it is an onomatopoeia transliterating the sound of delighted laughter. At each sounding of the trumpet, the war horse eagerly responds. He does not tire of the challenge. He smells the fight coming—the press of feet, the rumble of orders, the shouts of captains that roll like thunder, even from afar. He is an example of courage and strength where most will fear. The war cry intended to intimidate instead brings the war horse joy.

God made creatures that respond to signals. The war horse responds to inherent danger with courage and eagerness to play his part. God opened this section on the war horse by asking, “Did you give the horse his might? Did you clothe his neck with a mane?” (v. 19). This continues the basic theme that God’s created order is beyond Job’s capacity to comprehend, much less accomplish. “If you can’t understand very basic things, then why would you think your perspective would in any way inform Me?” is the logical conclusion of this line of reasoning.

It could also be that in this section on the war horse, God might also be introducing the concept of how strength is properly applied. While humans cannot create a war horse, they can gain great advantage from riding one. A war horse properly trained and engaged is a formidable ally for the one whom he serves.

Just like the war horse, Job is also serving a great purpose for the One whom he serves, even though at this point it appears he is oblivious to that reality. Job is silencing Satan with his righteousness, fulfilling a primary purpose for which God created humanity in His image and placed them over His creation (Psalm 8:2, 4-8). The Book of Job opens with God mocking Satan because of Job’s righteousness (Job 1:8). We will soon see that God is rewarding Job by leading Job to know Him, although this experience certainly does not feel like a reward to Job in the moment (Job 42:1-6).

We see in Ezekiel 14:20 that God elevates Job as an example of righteousness, placing him in the same company as Noah and Daniel. James 5:11 offers Job as an illustration of “endurance” and an example of how the Lord turns evil to good (Romans 8:28). In Job 42:7-8, God acknowledges that Job spoke rightly about God, in spite of his limited perspective. God will again reward Job during this life by restoring his fortunes, even doubling them (Job 42:10).

In a similar manner God calls all believers to follow Him, trusting that the narrow gate and difficult path He calls us to is, truly, what leads to life and benefit (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).

This tells us that in order to learn what Jesus has for us to learn, we must go through the same kinds of trials He went through. This includes rejection by the world. As Paul tells us, all who desire to live a godly life will be rejected by the world (2 Timothy 3:12).