Job 39

1 "Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch the does when they are in labor?

2 Can you count the months they are pregnant or know the time when they'll give birth?

3 They kneel down to give birth and deliver their young. Then the pain of giving birth is over.

4 Their young are healthy and grow up in the wild. They leave and don't come back.

5 "Who lets the wild donkey go free? Who unties the ropes of the wild donkey?

6 I gave it the desert to live in and the salt flats as its dwelling place.

7 It laughs at the noise of the city and doesn't [even] listen to the shouting of its master.

8 It explores the mountains for its pasture and looks for anything green.

9 "Will the wild ox agree to serve you, or will it stay at night beside your feeding trough?

10 Can you guide a wild ox in a furrow, or will it plow the valleys behind you?

11 Can you trust it just because it's so strong or leave your labor to it?

12 Can you rely on it to bring your grain back and take it to your threshing floor?

13 "Does the ostrich flap its wings in joy, or do its wings lack feathers?

14 It lays its eggs on the ground and warms them in the dust.

15 It forgets that a foot may crush them or a wild animal may trample them.

16 It acts harshly toward its young as if they weren't its own. It is not afraid that its work is for nothing

17 because God has deprived it of wisdom and did not give it any understanding.

18 It laughs at the horse and its rider when it gets up to flee.

19 "Can you give strength to a horse or dress its neck with a flowing mane?

20 Can you make it leap like a locust, when its snorting causes terror?

21 It paws in strength and finds joy in its power. It charges into battle.

22 It laughs at fear, is afraid of nothing, and doesn't back away from swords.

23 A quiver of arrows rattles on it along with the flashing spear and javelin.

24 Anxious and excited, the horse eats up the ground and doesn't trust the sound of the ram's horn.

25 As often as the horn sounds, the horse says, 'Aha!' and it smells the battle far away-- the thundering [orders] of the captains and the battle cries.

26 "Does your understanding make a bird of prey fly and spread its wings toward the south?

27 Is it by your order that the eagle flies high and makes its nest on the heights?

28 It perches for the night on a cliff. Its fortress is on a jagged peak.

29 From there it seeks food, and its eyes see it from far away.

30 Its young ones feed on blood. It is found wherever there are dead bodies."

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.