Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Ver. 41. Who provideth for the raven his food?] Though the raven be a most vile creature, and hated almost of all: in some places there is a reward appointed for those that shall kill them up. Though an unclean creature, and therefore abominable, Leviticus 11:13; Leviticus 11:15. Though unmerciful to her own, and pitiless to other birds, though an inauspicate creature, a sign both of man's punishment and God's curse, Isaiah 34:11. Though he crieth with a hoarse and harsh voice (whence also he hath derived the origin of his name), and so unfit to move pity; yet God provideth food for him. What then will he do for his faithful servants? Matthew 6:26, where our Saviour fetcheth not an example from the Israelites miraculously fed in the wilderness, or Elijah in the desert, but from fowls of the air; and among them, not from eagles, hawks, nightingales, but ravens, &c. "Consider the ravens," Luke 12:24, Corvus incubat 20 diebus, et pullos nido expellit (Plin. Arist.).
When his young ones cry to God] Though by implication only they cry, and not directly: being forsaken by the old ones, and left bare, they are fed by God with flies and worms bred in the nest out of their excrements; till, able to fly, and leave the nest, they wander for lack of meat to take it wherever they can meet with it.