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Job39

World English Bible · Public Domain

1“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

2Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

3They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains.

4Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.

5“Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

6whose home I have made the wilderness, and the salt land his dwelling place?

7He scorns the tumult of the city, neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.

8The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing.

9“Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

10Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?

11Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?

12Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?

13“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love?

14For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust,

15and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them.

16She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

17because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding.

18When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.

19“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

20Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

21He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.

22He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.

23The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin.

24He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?

27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?

28On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.

29From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.

30His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.”

Study Guide

Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 39.

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Chapter Summary

In this chapter: God inquires of Job concerning several animals. (1-30).

vv1-30

—In these questions the Lord continued to humble Job. In this chapter several animals are spoken of, whose nature or situation particularly show the power, wisdom, and manifold works of God. The wild ass. It is better to labour and be good for something, than to ramble and be good for nothing. From the untameableness of this and other creatures, we may see, how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot give law even to a wild ass's colt. The unicorn, a strong, stately, proud creature. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God challenges Job to force him to it. It is a great mercy if, where God gives strength for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, and reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do. Those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale, than the tail of the peacock; the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful feathers of the ostrich, which can never rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? The description of the war-horse helps to explain the character of presumptuous sinners. Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. When a man's heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way, by the violence of his appetites and passions, there is no making him fear the wrath of God, and the fatal consequences of sin. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rocks; but I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, Jer 49:16. All these beautiful references to the works of nature, should teach us a right view of the riches of the wisdom of Him who made and sustains all things. The want of right views concerning the wisdom of God, which is ever present in all things, led Job to think and speak unworthily of Providence.

Cross References

Job 39
v1Psalms 104:18thematic

Direct parallel linking wild rock goats (ibex) and high rocks as God's design for wilderness animals.

Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB

v1Psalms 29:9thematic

Sola Scriptura parallel of the Lord's voice causing the hinds to calve/bring forth with difficulty.

Supported by Matthew Poole

v5Jeremiah 2:24thematic

The wild ass in the wilderness, snuffing up the wind, untamed and preferring lonely freedom.

Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB

v27Jeremiah 49:16thematic

The pride of man contrasted with the eagle nesting on high in the crag of the rock.

Supported by Matthew Henry

v13Job 30:29allusion

Verbal link to the ostrich's crying and mournful nature in desolate places.

Supported by JFB

v16Lamentations 4:3thematic

Expressly compares the daughters of Jerusalem to ostriches in the wilderness, being cruel to their young.

Supported by Matthew Henry

v17Job 35:11thematic

Contrast of the ostrich's lack of wisdom with God teaching man more than the beasts.

Supported by JFB

v5Job 6:5thematic

Contrast between the lowing of the domestic ox and the free braying of the wild ass.

Supported by JFB

v6Psalms 107:34allusion

The Hebrew word for 'barren land' translates literally to saltiness/salt places as in Psalm 107.

Supported by JFB

v9Isaiah 1:3contrast

Contrast between the domestic ox knowing its owner's crib versus the wild, untamable unicorn.

Supported by JFB

v30Matthew 24:28thematic

Proverbial parallel used by Jesus: 'for wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered.'

v11 Samuel 24:2thematic

Mentions the actual steep geographical 'rocks of the wild goats' where David hid.

Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB

v5Job 11:12thematic

Proverbial comparison of vain, foolish man to a wild ass's colt needing restraint.

Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB

v7Job 3:18thematic

The wild ass's immunity to the driver's voice matches the prisoners hearing not the oppressor.

Supported by Matthew Poole

v19Jeremiah 8:6thematic

Compares headlong, presumptuous sinners to a war-horse rushing mindlessly into battle.

Supported by Matthew Henry