Job 39:1

1 "Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you seen deer in labor?

Job 39:1 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:1

Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring
forth?
&c.] Which creatures are so called, because they dwell among the rocks ^F4 and run upon them; and though their heads are loaded with a vast burden of horns upon them, yet can so poise themselves, as with the greatest swiftness, to leap from mountain to mountain, as Pliny says ^F5: and if they bring forth their young in the rocks, as Olympiodorus asserts, and which is not improbable, it is not to be wondered, that the time of their bringing forth should not be known by men, to whom the rocks they run upon are inaccessible;

[or] canst thou mark the time when the hinds do calve?
that is, precisely and exactly, and so as to direct, order, and manage, and bring it about, as the Lord does: and it is wonderful that they should calve, and not cast their young before their time, when they are continually in flight and fright, through men or wild beasts, and are almost always running and leaping about; and often scared with thunder, which hastens birth, ( Psalms 29:9 ) ; otherwise the time of their bringing forth in general is known by men, as will be observed in ( Job 39:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 "----Amantis saxa capellae". Ovid. Epist. 15. v. 55.
F5 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 53. Aelian. de Animal. l. 14. c. 16.

Job 39:1 In-Context

1 "Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you seen deer in labor?

2 Can you tell how many months they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth,

3 when they crouch down and bring forth their young, when they deliver their fawns?

4 Their young become strong, growing up in the open; they leave and never return.

5 "Who lets the wild donkey roam freely? Who sets the wild donkey loose from its shackles?