Job 39

1 Knowest thou the time when the mountain goats bring forth? Hast thou observed when the hinds calve?

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

3 How they crouch down, they bring forth their young ones, and dismiss their pain.

4 Their young ones are healthy, they grow up with grain; they go forth and never return unto them again.

5 Who freed the wild ass, and who loosed its bands?

6 Unto whom I made a house in the wilderness, and his dwellings in the salty land.

7 He laughs at the multitude of the city, neither does he hearken to the voice of the exactor of tribute.

8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib?

10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? Will he harrow the valleys after thee?

11 Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?

12 Wilt thou trust him, that he will bring home thy seed and gather it into thy barn?

13 Didst thou give beautiful wings unto the peacock, or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?

14 Who leaves her eggs in the earth and warms them in dust

15 and forgets that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them.

16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers, not fearing that her labour is in vain,

17 because God caused her to forget wisdom and did not give her understanding.

18 In her time she lifts up herself on high; she scorns the horse and his rider.

19 Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

20 Canst thou make him leap as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is formidable.

21 He paws at the earth and rejoices in his strength; he goes forth to meet the armed men.

22 He mocks fear and is not afraid; neither does he turn his face from the sword.

23 The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

24 He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage; the sound of the shofar does not trouble him;

25 for the blasts of the shofar fill him with courage; he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the princes and the sound of the battle-cry.

26 Does the hawk fly by thy industry and stretch her wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high?

28 She dwells and abides on the rock upon the crag of the rock and the strong place.

29 From there she seeks food, and her eyes behold afar off.

30 Her young ones suck up the blood; and wherever the slain are, there she 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.

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.