Who provideth for the raven his food?.... Not man, but God; he feeds the ravens, creatures very voracious, mean, and useless,
when his young ones cry unto God; cry for want of food; which is interpreted by the Lord as a cry unto him, and he relieves them,
Psalms 147:9; when deserted by the old ones; either left in their nests through forgetfulness, as some z; or because they are not, till fledged, black like them, as others a; when God feeds them, as some say b, with a kind of dew from heaven, or with flies that fly about them, and fall into their mouths; or with worms bred out of their dung but these things are not to be depended on; it may rather respect them when cast out of the nest by the old ones, when able to fly, which is testified by naturalists c; and with this agrees what follows:
they wander for lack of meat; being obliged to shift for themselves, when God takes care of them; which is an instance of his providential goodness; and how this is to be improved, see Matthew 6:26.
z Plin. apud Servium in Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. p. 189. a Pirke Eliezer, c. 21. b Hieron. in Pasl. cxlvii. 9. c Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 3. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 12.