Job 39

1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?

2 Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,

3 when they crouch to give birth to their offspring, and are delivered of their young?

4 Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth, and do not return to them.

5 "Who has let the wild ass go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,

6 to which I have given the steppe for its home, the salt land for its dwelling place?

7 It scorns the tumult of the city; it does not hear the shouts of the driver.

8 It ranges the mountains as its pasture, and it searches after every green thing.

9 "Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night at your crib?

10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes, or will it harrow the valleys after you?

11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great, and will you hand over your labor to it?

12 Do you have faith in it that it will return, and bring your grain to your threshing floor?

13 "The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage.

14 For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,

15 forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them.

16 It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;

17 because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding.

18 When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 "Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?

20 Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.

21 It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.

22 It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.

23 Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.

24 With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25 When the trumpet sounds, it says "Aha!' From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26 "Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?

27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?

28 It lives on the rock and makes its home in the fastness of the rocky crag.

29 From there it spies the prey; its eyes see it from far away.

30 Its young ones suck up blood; and where the slain are, there it 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]. Heb [your grain and your threshing floor]
• [b]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
• [c]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
• [d]. Gk Syr Vg: Heb [they dig]

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.