39:19 “Do you give the horse its strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane? 1
39:20 Do you make it leap 2 like a locust?
Its proud neighing 3 is terrifying!
1 tn The second half of the verse contains this hapax legomenon, which is usually connected with the word רַעְמָה (ra’mah, “thunder”). A. B. Davidson thought it referred to the quivering of the neck rather than the mane. Gray thought the sound and not the movement was the point. But without better evidence, a reading that has “quivering mane” may not be far off the mark. But it may be simplest to translate it “mane” and assume that the idea of “quivering” is part of the meaning.
2 sn The same ideas are found in Joel 2:4. The leaping motion is compared to the galloping of the horse.
3 tn The word could mean “snorting” as well (see Jer 8:16). It comes from the root “to blow.” If the horse is running and breathing hard, this could be the sense here.