Job 39:1

1 Zult gij voor den ouden leeuw roof jagen, of de graagheid der jonge leeuwen vervullen?

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 Zult gij voor den ouden leeuw roof jagen, of de graagheid der jonge leeuwen vervullen?

2 Als zij nederbukken in de holen, en in den kuil zitten, ter loering?

3 Wie bereidt de raaf haar kost, als haar jongen tot God schreeuwen, als zij dwalen, omdat er geen eten is?

4 Weet gij den tijd van het baren der steengeiten? Hebt gij waargenomen den arbeid der hinden?

5 Zult gij de maanden tellen, die zij vervullen, en weet gij den tijd van haar baren?