The interpretation timeline

Job 39:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Patristic before A.D. 750
604
A.D.
Gregory the Great
c. A.D. 540–604
“Their young ones are weaned, and go to their pasture; they go forth, and return not unto them. 49. Holy Scripture terms 'pasture' that food of eternal verdure, where our refreshment will no longer waste away with any dryness of failing. Of which pasture it is said by the Psalmist, The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing; He hath placed me there in a place of pasture. [Ps. 23, 1] And again, But we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. [Ps. 96, 7] And of these pastures, doubtless, the Truth says, by Itself; By Me, if any one hath entered in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture. [John 10, 9] They go therefore to the pasture; because, on going forth from their bodies, they find those refreshments of eternal verdure. They go forth, and return not unto them; because, when they have been caught up in that contemplation of joys, they no longer need to hear the words of teachers. Having gone forth, therefore, they do not return to them; because, escaping the difficulties of this life, they require no longer to receive from teachers the preaching of life. For then that is fulfilled which is written, Each man shall no longer teach his neighbour, and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least of them even unto the greatest, saith the Lord. [Jer. 31, 34] Then is fulfilled that which the Truth says in the Gospel, I shall declare to you plainly of My Father. [John 16, 25] For the Son in truth plainly declares of the Father; because, as we have said before, in that He is the Word, He enlightens us by the nature of the Godhead. For men seek not then for the words of teachers, which are streamlets, as it were, from the tongue of man, when they are themselves already derived from the fount of Truth Itself. After much then had been said, under the figurative bending down of hinds, concerning the virtue of teachers, His words are now directed to the conduct of those, who seek for the secresy of retired conversation.”
670 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas
1225–1274
“Just as the mothers by natural aptitude prepare themselves for giving birth, so also their young by natural aptitude are divinely taught to search for the necessities of life for themselves, and so he says, "Their young separate," which is not the case with a human child, for a boy who has only been born cannot move himself to leave his mother, but this happens with those animals. As soon as they are born they immediately move themselves, and their first motion is to look for something to eat, and so he says, "and they go to pasture." But still in the beginning they need to be fed by the mother's milk, and so they separate from the mother, but still return to her. However, after a little while, when they are stronger, they are completely separated from their mothers, and so he says, "they go forth and do not return to them," because they do not need to be nursed by them anymore.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.