Wild Donkey

Scripture references: Genesis 16:12; Job 6:5; 11:12; 39:5–8; Psalm 104:11; Isaiah 32:14; Jeremiah 2:24; 14:6; Hosea 8:9; Daniel 5:21

The Hebrew term, פֶּרֶא (pere') is the wild donkey or wild ass, the untamed relative of the domestic donkey (chamor). The wild donkey of the ancient Near East is the onager (Equus hemionus onager), native to the arid plains and salt steppes of the Levant, Syria, and Mesopotamia. It is faster than the domestic donkey, impossible to tame, and lives in terrain that the domestic animal cannot survive. YHWH's claim over the wild donkey in Job 39 is the claim that freedom itself is his gift.

Ishmael as wild donkey, Genesis 16:12, The angel of YHWH tells Hagar about her unborn son: "He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen." The pere' (wild donkey) is given as Ishmael's character: independent, conflict-prone, uncontainable, ranging free over territory that belongs to him in a different way than it belongs to settled peoples. The prophetic word is not an insult; it is a description of destiny.

Job's braying wild donkey, Job 6:5, "Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?" Job's argument: his complaint is proportionate to his lack. The wild donkey brays when it has nothing; it does not bray when its needs are met. Job is braying because he has nothing, his complaint is self-evidently justified by the condition that produced it.

Zophar's wild donkey, Job 11:12, "But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man!" The impossibility formula: the wild donkey's colt becoming a human being. Zophar uses this as the measure of how impossible he thinks it is for Job to gain understanding. The wild donkey's colt stands in for the category of utterly impossible transformation.

WHO released the wild donkey?, Job 39:5–8, YHWH's speech from the whirlwind: "Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver. He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing." YHWH is the one who released it. The wild donkey's freedom is YHWH's doing, he gave it the salt land for its dwelling. The domestic donkey is constrained by drivers and shouts; the wild donkey ignores all of that. Its freedom is a created freedom, authored by YHWH, into terrain specifically suited to it.

Ephraim like a wild donkey, Hosea 8:9, "For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers." The pere' wandering alone without a herd is the image of Israel's foreign policy, going to Assyria for alliances, ranging alone away from the covenant community into dangerous open territory.

The wild donkey in desolation, Isaiah 32:14; Jeremiah 14:6, Wild donkeys in Isaiah 32:14 inhabit what were once inhabited towns, the wild animal in the ruined city as the sign of judgment. Jeremiah 14:6: "The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no vegetation." The wild donkey in drought stands on the heights gasping, the creature of the arid plain failing even in its native territory.

The wild donkey is the creature of YHWH-authored freedom, released into the arid salt plain by YHWH's own hand, given terrain proportionate to its nature, scorning every driver's shout. The Sanctum holds it as Canon-tier: from Ishmael prophesied as a wild-donkey of a man to YHWH's Job 39 claim of the creature whose freedom he installed.