Job 39:3

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

Job 39:3 Meaning and Commentary

Job 39:3

They bow themselves
That they may bring forth their young with greater ease and more safety: for it seems the hinds bring forth their young with great difficulty; and there are provisions in nature made to lessen it; as thunder, before observed, which causes them to bring forth the sooner; and there is an herb called "seselis", which it is said F9 they feed upon before birth, to make it the easier; as well as they use that, and another called "aros", after the birth, to ease them of their later pains;

they bring forth their young ones;
renting and cleaving asunder the membrane, as the word signifies, in which their young is wrapped;

they cast out their sorrows;
either their young, which they bring forth in pains and which then cease; or the secundines, or afterbirth, in which the young is wrapped, and which the philosopher says F11 they eat, and is supposed to be medical to them. None but a woman seems to bring forth with more pain than this creature; and a wife is compared to it, ( Proverbs 5:19 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F9 Cicero de Natura Deoram, l. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. c. 8. 32. Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 5.
F11 Aristot. ib.

Job 39:3 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?
The Dutch Staten Vertaling translation is in the public domain.