Job 39

1 "Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you seen deer in labor?

2 Can you tell how many months they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth,

3 when they crouch down and bring forth their young, when they deliver their fawns?

4 Their young become strong, growing up in the open; they leave and never return.

5 "Who lets the wild donkey roam freely? Who sets the wild donkey loose from its shackles?

6 I made the 'Aravah its home, the salty desert its place to live.

7 It scorns the noise of the city and hears no driver's shouts.

8 It ranges over the hills for its pasture, searching for anything green.

9 "Would a wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it stay by your stall?

10 Could you tie a rope around its neck and make it plow furrows for you?

11 Would you trust its great strength enough to let it do your heavy work,

12 or rely on it to bring home your seed and gather the grain from your threshing-floor?

13 "An ostrich's wings beat wildly, although its pinions lack plumage.

14 It leaves its eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed by the sand,

15 forgetting that a foot may crush them or a wild animal trample on them.

16 It treats its chicks heartlessly, as if they were not its own; even if her labor is in vain, it really doesn't care;

17 because God has deprived it of wisdom and given it no share in understanding.

18 When the time comes, it flaps its wings, scorning both horse and rider.

19 "Did you give the horse its strength? Did you clothe its neck with a mane?

20 Did you make him able to leap like a locust? Its majestic snorting is frightening!

21 It paws with force and exults with vigor, then charges into the battle;

22 mocking at fear, unafraid, it does not shy away from the sword.

23 The [rider's] quiver rattles over it, [his] gleaming spear and javelin.

24 Frenzied and eager, it devours the ground, scarcely believing the shofar has sounded.

25 At the sound of the shofar it whinnies; as from afar it scents the battle, the roar of the chiefs and the shouting.

26 "Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk soaring, spreading its wings toward the south?

27 Does the eagle fly up when you say so, to build its nest in the heights?

28 It lives and spends its nights on the cliffs; a rocky crag is its fortress.

29 From there it spots its prey, its eyes see it far off.

30 Its young ones suck up blood; wherever 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.

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.