Job 12:8
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the
fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
a. NLT: Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in
the sea speak to you.
b. NIV: or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish
in the sea inform you.
c. YLT: Or talk to the earth, and it sheweth thee, And fishes of the
sea recount to thee:
d. Amplified Bible Classic: Or speak to the earth [with its other forms
of life], and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare [this
truth] to you.
e. Septuagint: Tell the earth, if it may speak to thee: and the fishes
of the sea shall explain to thee.
f. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: Or speak to the earth, and it
will teach you; the fish of the sea will report to you.
1. “Or speak to the
earth, and it shall teach thee…”
a. Or speak [7878 * siyach] [Strong: a primitive root; to ponder, i.e.
(by implication) converse (with oneself, and hence, aloud) or (transitively)
utter:-- commune, complain, declare, meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with).]
b. to the earth [776 * 'erets eh'-rets from an unused root probably meaning
to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land):--X common, country,
earth, field, ground, land, X natins, way, + wilderness, world.]
c. and it shall teach thee [3384 * yarah; yara;] [Strong: a primitive
root; properly, to flow as water (i.e. to rain); transitively, to lay or throw
(especially an arrow, i.e. to shoot); figuratively, to point out (as if by
aiming the finger), to teach:--(+) archer, cast, direct, inform, instruct, lay,
shew, shoot, teach(-er,-ing), through.]
1). What we are going to encounter in this verse is a term called biomimicry.
Biomimicry, is a term that means man is mimicking what the created order does to
come up with things that will be a blessing to mankind. What the earliest
example of this in human history I have no idea. Probably the most well known
example of biomimicry is velcro After a hunting trip in the Alps in 1941, Swiss
engineer George de Mestral’s dog was covered in burdock burrs. Mestral put one
under his microscope and discovered a simple design of hooks that nimbly
attached to fur and socks. After years of experimentation, he invented Velcro —
and earned U.S. Patent 2,717,437 in October 1952. http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-08-18/14-smart-inventions-inspired-by-nature-biomimicry.html#slide7
The fascinating thing in all this is though man has only recently discovered biomimicry,
as this verse reveals, God has wanted mankind to see it for over 3000 years.
2). Smithsonian magazine 9/2012 Examples of biomimicry entitled Better Living
Through Imitation. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Biomimicry-is-Inspiring-Human-Innovation-165592706.html
a). “Though biomimicry has inspired human innovations for decades—one
of the most often-cited examples is Velcro, which the Swiss engineer Georges de
Mestral patented in 1955 after studying how burs stuck to his clothes—better
technology and more nuanced research have enabled increasingly complex
adaptions. Design software created by German researcher Claus Mattheck—and used
in Opel and Mercedes cars—reflects the ways trees and bones distribute strength
and loads. A fan created by Pax Scientific borrows from the patterns of
swirling kelp, nautilus and whelks to move air more efficiently. A
saltwater-irrigated greenhouse in the Qatari desert will use condensation and
evaporation tricks gleaned from the nose of a camel. Now, thanks in part to
continuing innovations in nanoscale fabrication, manufacturers are bringing an
expanding array of products to market.”
b). “The hydrodynamically efficient shape of banyan tree leaves
influenced the design of a better water-dispatching roof shingle, while water
divertment systems were inspired by the ways harvester ants direct water away
from their nests.”
c). “One of the world’s most striking examples of biomimicry solved a
maddening problem in Japan. The country’s high-speed trains, which carry more
than eight billion passengers a year, are noted for their comfort, safety and
efficiency, but for years they were notorious for causing the equivalent of a
sonic boom when they exited Japan’s ubiquitous train tunnels, violating
noise-polution standsrds and steeing people’s teeth on edge. The problem was on
of physics: When a train entered a tunnel, its bullet shaped nose compressed
the air into something like a tidal wave; when the wave exited the tunnel, it
expanded so rapidly it set off what is known as a “tunnel boom.” Those dynamics
led Eiji Nakatsu, a birder who also happened to be the chief engineer for the
West Japan Railway Company, to consider the kingfisher, a bird that can plunge
form air into water with hardly a splash. By firing bullets of various shapes
into a pipe, his engineers found that one shaped like the bird’s beak parted
the air instead of compressing it. (Separately, they designed a quieter
pantograph, or circuit collector, based on the noise-absorbing properties of
owl feathers.) After trains fronted with the equivalent of a kingfisher bill
went into service in 1997, Japan became a quieter place. T.A. Frail.”
2. “…and the fishes
of the sea shall declare unto thee.”
a. and the fishes [1709 * dag; or
(fully) dag] [Strong: from 1711; a fish (as prolific); or perhaps rather
from 1672 (as timid); but still better from 1672 (in the
sense of squirming, i.e. moving by the vibratory action of the tail); a fish
(often used collectively):--fish.]
b. of the sea [3220 * yam]
[Strong: from an unused root meaning to roar; a sea (as breaking in noisy surf)
or large body of water; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea;
sometimes a large river, or an artifical basin; locally, the west, or (rarely)
the south:--sea (X -faring man, (-shore)), south, west (-ern, side, -ward).]
c. shall declare [5608 * caphar]
[Strong: a primitive root; properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record,
i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively, to
recount, i.e. celebrate:--commune, (ac-)count; declare, number, + penknife,
reckon, scribe, shew forth, speak, talk, tell (out), writer.]
1). National Geographic 8/2011 A
test made from horseshoe crabs just might have saved your life: About 500,000
horseshoe crabs are collected annually along the U.S. East Coast under
interstate regulations. In a laboratory, blood is drawn from the crab’s
primitive equivalent of a heart.[About 20 percent of each crab’s blood is
collected before it is returned to the water.]The live crabs are returned to
the sea. The estimated mortality rate is 15 percent. The blood’s blue color
comes from copper in its oxygen-carrying protein, hemocyanin—akin to the iron-based
hemoglobin in humans. BANKING ON BLUE
BLOOD: It’s blue, comes from a creature more ancient than dinosaurs, and
saves countless human lives. It’s the blood of horseshoe crabs, and for decades
it’s proved vital to biomedical companies that must screen vaccines, IV fluids,
and medical devices for bacteria that can be fatal in our bloodstream. Thanks,
to proteins in cells that act like a primitive immune system, the crabs’ blood
coagulates instantly when it touches pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella. So
sensitive is the test derived from the proteins that it can detect amounts as
slight as one part per trillion. That’s like one grain of sugar in an
Olympic-size swimming pool, says John Dubczak of test producer Charles River,
Endosafe. Now Princeton University researchers are looking at another approach
using synthetic molecules that replicate antimicrobial peptides found on the
skin of African clawed frogs. That would take some of the heat off the
horseshoe crabs—if it can match the sensitivity of their millions-year-old
strategy. –Luna Shyr
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