Job 39

The LORD Speaks of His Creation

1 “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?

2 Can you count the months they are pregnant? Do you know the time they give birth?

3 They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.

4 Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field; they leave and do not return.

5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

6 I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.

7 He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

8 He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.

9 Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?

10 Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?

11 Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?

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

13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions ^[a] and feathers of the stork.

14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

15 She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them.

16 She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

17 For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.

18 Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?

20 Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?

21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.

22 He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

23 A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance. ^[b]

24 Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.

25 At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. ^[c] He catches the scent of battle from afar, the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

26 Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?

28 He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

29 From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.

30 His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Pinions are the outer parts of a bird’s wings, including the flight feathers.
• [b]. Or javelin
• [c]. Or he snorts, ‘Aha!’

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.