Job 39:1-8

1 "Do you know when ¹the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe ²the calving of the does?

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

3 when they ³crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?

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

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

6 to whom I have given ⁶the arid plain for his home and ⁷the salt land for his dwelling place?

7 He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver.

8 He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

Job 39:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Samuel 24:2; Psalms 104:18
• 2. Psalms 29:9
• 3. 1 Samuel 4:19
• 4. [Genesis 8:12]
• 5. [Job 12:18; Psalms 116:16]
• 6. Job 24:5; Jeremiah 2:24
• 7. Psalms 107:34; Jeremiah 17:6; [Deuteronomy 29:23]