Proverbs 1:17

1:17 Surely it is futile to spread ¹  a net

in plain sight of ²  any bird, ³ 

Job 12:7-8

Knowledge of God’s Wisdom ⁴ 

12:7 “But now, ask the animals and they ⁵  will teach you,

or the birds of the sky and they will tell you.

12:8 Or speak ⁶  to the earth ⁷  and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea declare to you.

Isaiah 1:3

1:3 An ox recognizes its owner,

a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; ⁸ 

but Israel does not recognize me, ⁹ 

my people do not understand.”

Matthew 6:26

6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ¹⁰  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ¹¹  them. Aren’t you more valuable ¹²  than they are?

[1:17]  ¹ tn Heb “for the net to be spread out.” The Pual participle of זָרָה (zarah) means “to be spread” (HALOT 280 s.v. I זרה pu.1). The subject of this verbal use of the participle is the noun הָרָשֶׁת (harashet, “the net”). It is futile for the net to be spread out in plain view of birds.

[1:17]  ² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[1:17]  ³ tn Heb “all of the possessors of wings.”

[12:7]  ⁴ sn As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 216) observes, in this section Job argues that respected tradition “must not be accepted uncritically.”

[12:7]  ⁵ tn The singular verb is used here with the plural collective subject (see GKC 464 §145.k).

[12:8]  ⁶ tn The word in the MT means “to complain,” not simply “to speak,” and one would expect animals as the object here in parallel to the last verse. So several commentators have replaced the word with words for animals or reptiles – totally different words (cf. NAB, “reptiles”). The RSV and NRSV have here the word “plants” (see 30:4, 7; and Gen 21:15).

[12:8]  ⁷ tn A. B. Davidson (Job, 90) offers a solution by taking “earth” to mean all the lower forms of life that teem in the earth (a metonymy of subject).

[1:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the donkey the feeding trough of its owner.” The verb in the first line does double duty in the parallelism.

[1:3]  ⁹ tn Although both verbs have no object, the parallelism suggests that Israel fails to recognize the Lord as the one who provides for their needs. In both clauses, the placement of “Israel” and “my people” at the head of the clause focuses the reader’s attention on the rebellious nation (C. van der Merwe, J. Naudé, J. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, 346-47).

[6:26]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[6:26]  ¹¹ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[6:26]  ¹² tn Grk “of more value.”