Job 39:3

3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young, They cast out their pains.

Job 39:3 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:3

They bow themselves
That they may bring forth their young with greater ease and more safety: for it seems the hinds bring forth their young with great difficulty; and there are provisions in nature made to lessen it; as thunder, before observed, which causes them to bring forth the sooner; and there is an herb called "seselis", which it is said ^F9 they feed upon before birth, to make it the easier; as well as they use that, and another called "aros", after the birth, to ease them of their later pains;

they bring forth their young ones;
renting and cleaving asunder the membrane, as the word signifies, in which their young is wrapped;

they cast out their sorrows;
either their young, which they bring forth in pains and which then cease; or the secundines, or afterbirth, in which the young is wrapped, and which the philosopher says ^F11 they eat, and is supposed to be medical to them. None but a woman seems to bring forth with more pain than this creature; and a wife is compared to it, ( Proverbs 5:19 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Cicero de Natura Deoram, l. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. c. 8. 32. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 5.
F11 Aristot. ib.

Job 39:3 In-Context

1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? [Or] canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?

3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young, They cast out their pains.

4 Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open field; They go forth, and return not again.

5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? Or who hath loosed the bonds of the swift ass,