Ephrem the Syrian — Commentary on Scripture

Job 39:13-18

The sort of wings described here appears to signify the synagogue of those who led Christ to the cross. Indeed, who is that mother who generated many children but whose children are not hers? It can only be the one who gave birth to the prophets and brought up the apostles, who are not hers though. Indeed both prophets and apostles, after being adopted into the church, abandoned it.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 39:13

Job 39:27-30

The eagle is Christ. The high rock is the cross. The young ones licking the blood are the souls of the saints, who feed on Christ’s blood flowing from his side, that blood that also the nations of the believers enjoy like young ones of the heavenly eagle.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 39:27

Job 40:15

The Behemoth is a dragon, that is, a land animal, just as the Leviathan is an aquatic sea animal.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:15

Job 41:10-12

“All that is under heaven belongs to me. And I will not be silent.” These words indicate the devil, whose prodigious nature is described in these two beasts, who is destined to be conquered by the power of Christ when the fullness of time will come.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 41:2-3

Job 42:16-17

Scripture reports God increased by half all of Job’s things, except for the children. It is evident, therefore, that the length of his life was also increased by a half. If he had lived 170 years when he was delivered from that calamity, it appears that he lived for 85 years more to the end of his life, that is, for the number of years that is the half of 170. Now, if you add 85 years to the 170 years he had lived before, you have a sum of 255. Actually Scripture declares that Job lived 248 years, therefore those 7 years that are not included in the sum were the years of his temptation. And with good reason they were not counted, because they appear to belong to a period of death more than life.

COMMENTARY ON JOB 42:16