Job 39

1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the deer gives birth to her fawn?

2 Do you count the months until they give birth and know the right time for them to give birth?

3 They lie down, their young are born, and then the pain of giving birth is over.

4 Their young ones grow big and strong in the wild country. Then they leave their homes and do not return.

5 "Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes?

6 I am the one who gave the donkey the desert as its home; I gave it the desert lands as a place to live.

7 The wild donkey laughs at the confusion in the city, and it does not hear the drivers shout.

8 It roams the hills looking for pasture, looking for anything green to eat.

9 "Will the wild ox agree to serve you and stay by your feeding box at night?

10 Can you hold it to the plowed row with a harness so it will plow the valleys for you?

11 Will you depend on the wild ox for its great strength and leave your heavy work for it to do?

12 Can you trust the ox to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

13 "The wings of the ostrich flap happily, but they are not like the feathers of the stork.

14 The ostrich lays its eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

15 It does not stop to think that a foot might step on them and crush them; it does not care that some animal might walk on them.

16 The ostrich is cruel to its young, as if they were not even its own. It does not care that its work is for nothing,

17 because God did not give the ostrich wisdom; God did not give it a share of good sense.

18 But when the ostrich gets up to run, it is so fast that it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 "Job, are you the one who gives the horse its strength or puts a flowing mane on its neck?

20 Do you make the horse jump like a locust? It scares people with its proud snorting.

21 It paws wildly, enjoying its strength, and charges into battle.

22 It laughs at fear and is afraid of nothing; it does not run away from the sword.

23 The bag of arrows rattles against the horse's side, along with the flashing spears and swords.

24 With great excitement, the horse races over the ground; and it cannot stand still when it hears the trumpet.

25 When the trumpet blows, the horse snorts, 'Aha!' It smells the battle from far away; it hears the shouts of commanders and the battle cry.

26 "Is it through your wisdom that the hawk flies and spreads its wings toward the south?

27 Are you the one that commands the eagle to fly and build its nest so high?

28 It lives on a high cliff and stays there at night; the rocky peak is its protected place.

29 From there it looks for its food; its eyes can see it from far away.

30 Its young eat blood, and where there is something dead, the eagle is there."

Job 39 Commentary

Chapter 39

God inquires of Job concerning several animals.

- 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, ( Jeremiah 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.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 39

This chapter treats of various creatures, beasts and birds, which Job had little knowledge of, had no concern in the making of them, and scarcely any power over them; as of the goats and hinds, Job 39:1-4; of the wild ass, Job 39:5-8; of the unicorn, Job 39:9-12; of the peacock and ostrich, Job 39:13-18; of the horse, Job 39:19-25; and of the hawk and eagle, Job 39:26-30.