Commentary on Job, part 18

The contrast between humans, who are able to know about God through nature, and non-human animals, who remain ignorant, is allegorized by Stepanos to the contrast between orthodox believers,  who have received salvation through Christ, and the non-believers who are unable to attain it.

“Neither have the sons of the proud trodden it” (28:8)

Although he speaks of the generation of dragons and other wild animals to which was not given the art of mining gold and other precious stones, as we said above about the art of smithing, you should understand this allegorically as the way of the economy of the Savior, which Herod and other cruel kings like him cannot tread unsnared. And also the children of the Jews and heretics who have separated themselves from the faith, of whom the Lord said, “You are of your father, Satan” (John 8:44). They cannot attain by the examination of their minds the holy sacrament of sacrifice.

“and the lion has not passed it” (28:8)

Although the lion is mighty, it cannot pass in a place where the elements are precious.

Commentary on Job, part 17

The Armenian version of Job 28:7 contains a variant of the Armenian word for 'vulture': անգեղ (which also means 'without beauty, ugly') rather than the standard անգղ to render the Greek γύψ. Perhaps this is the result of a folk etymology based on the negative characteristics associated with the scavenger bird. The comprehensive etymological dictionary of Adjarian connects անգղ to a Scythian word alleged by the lexicographer Hesychius to mean 'swan' and rendered in Greek as ἄγλυ. Adjarian also lists the Arabic ‘anqā ('phoenix') and the Laz anke ('a species of bird with the color of vultures that catches and eats flies and butterflies').

“There is a path, the bird has not known it, and the eye of the vulture has not seen it.” (28:7)

The aerial demon of principalities did not know the divine economy of our Savior. Neither did the aerial demon of dominions, as the sacrament of the Church was hidden from them according to the wise one: “the way of a snake on a stone or a ship on the sea or an eagle in the sky is not traced” (Proverbs 30:19).