1“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?
         Do you observe the calving of the deer?

2“Can you count the months they fulfill,
         Or do you know the time they give birth?

3“They kneel down, they bring forth their young,
         They get rid of their labor pains.

4“Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field;
         They leave and do not return to them.

5“Who sent out the wild donkey free?
         And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

6To whom I gave the wilderness for a home
         And the salt land for his dwelling place?

7“He scorns the tumult of the city,
         The shoutings of the driver he does not hear.

8“He explores the mountains for his pasture
         And searches after every green thing.

9“Will the wild ox consent to serve you,
         Or will he spend the night at your manger?

10“Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes,
         Or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11“Will you trust him because his strength is great
         And leave your labor to him?

12“Will you have faith in him that he will return your grain
         And gather it from your threshing floor?

13“The ostriches’ wings flap joyously
         With the pinion and plumage of love,

14For she abandons her eggs to the earth
         And warms them in the dust,

15And she forgets that a foot may crush them,
         Or that a wild beast may trample them.

16“She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers;
         Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;

17Because God has made her forget wisdom,
         And has not given her a share of understanding.

18“When she lifts herself on high,
         She laughs at the horse and his rider.

19“Do you give the horse his might?
         Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

20“Do you make him leap like the locust?
         His majestic snorting is terrible.

21“He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;
         He goes out to meet the weapons.

22“He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
         And he does not turn back from the sword.

23“The quiver rattles against him,
         The flashing spear and javelin.

24“With shaking and rage he races over the ground,
         And he does not stand still at the voice of the trumpet.

25“As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’
         And he scents the battle from afar,
         And the thunder of the captains and the war cry.

26“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,
         Stretching his wings toward the south?

27“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
         And makes his nest on high?

28“On the cliff he dwells and lodges,
         Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place.

29“From there he spies out food;
         His eyes see it from afar.

30“His young ones also suck up blood;
         And where the slain are, there is he.”

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
"Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch the does when they are in labor?

King James Bible
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth among the rocks, or hast thou observed the hinds when they fawn?

Darby Bible Translation
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? dost thou mark the calving of the hinds?

English Revised Version
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

Webster's Bible Translation
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?

World English Bible
"Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

Young's Literal Translation
Hast thou known the time of The bearing of the wild goats of the rock? The bringing forth of hinds thou dost mark!

Cross References

Deuteronomy 14:5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep.

1 Samuel 24:2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

Job 39:2 "Can you count the months they fulfill, Or do you know the time they give birth?

Psalm 29:9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

Psalm 104:18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the shephanim.

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Chapter 39

God proceeds here to show Job what little reason he had to charge him with unkindness who was so compassionate to the inferior creatures and took such a tender care of them, or to boast of himself, and his own good deeds before God, which were nothing to the divine mercies. He shows him also what great reason he had to be humble who knew so little of the nature of the creatures about him and had so little influence upon them, and to submit to that God on whom they all depend. He discourses particularly, I. Concerning the wild goats and hinds (v. 1-4). II. Concerning the wild ass (v. 5-8). III. Concerning the unicorn (v. 9-12). IV. Concerning the horse (v. 19-25). VII. Concerning the hawk and the eagle (v. 26-30).

Verses 1-12

God here shows Job what little acquaintance he had with the untamed creatures that run wild in the deserts and live at large, but are the care of the divine Providence. As,

I. The wild goats and the hinds. That which is taken notice of concerning them is the bringing forth and bringing up of their young ones. For, as every individual is fed, so every species of animals is preserved, by the care of the divine Providence, and, for aught we know, none extinct to this day. Observe here, 1. Concerning the production of their young, (1.) Man is wholly ignorant of the time when they bring forth, v. 1, 2. Shall we pretend to tell what is in the womb of Providence, or what a day will bring forth, who know not the time of the pregnancy of a hind or a wild goat? (2.) Though they bring forth their young with a great deal of difficulty and sorrow, and have no assistance from man, yet, by the good providence of God, their young ones are safely produced, and their sorrows cast out and forgotten, v. 3. Some think it is intimated (Ps. 29:9) that God by thunder helps the hinds in calving. Let it be observed, for the comfort of women in labour, that God helps even the hinds to bring forth their young; and shall he not much more succour them, and save them in child-bearing, who are his children in covenant with him? 2. Concerning the growth of their young, (v. 4): They are in good liking; though they are brought forth in sorrow, after their dams have suckled them awhile they shift for themselves in the corn-fields, and are no more burdensome to them, which is an example to children, when they have grown up, not to be always hanging upon their parents and craving from them, but to put forth themselves to get their own livelihood and to requite their parents.

II. The wild ass, a creature we frequently read of in Scripture, some say untameable. Man is said to be born as the wild ass's colt, so hard to be governed. Two things Providence has allotted to the wild ass:-1. An unbounded liberty (v. 5): Who but God has sent out the wild ass free? He has given a disposition to it, and therefore a dispensation for it. The tame ass is bound to labour; the wild ass has no bonds on him. Note, Freedom from service, and liberty to range at pleasure, are but the privileges of a wild ass. It is a pity that any of the children of men should covet such a liberty, or value themselves on it. It is better to labour and be good for something than ramble and be good for nothing. But if, among men, Providence sets some at liberty and suffers them to live at ease, while others are doomed to servitude, we must not marvel at the matter: it is so among the brute-creatures. 2. An unenclosed lodging (v. 6): Whose house I have made the wilderness, where he has room enough to traverse his ways, and snuff up the wind at his pleasure, as the wild ass is said to do (Jer. 2:24), as if he had to live upon the air, for it is the barren land that is his dwelling. Observe, The tame ass, that labours, and is serviceable to man, has his master's crib to go to both for shelter and food, and lives in a fruitful land: but the wild ass, that will have his liberty, must have it in a barren land. He that will not labour, let him not eat. He that will shall eat the labour of his hands, and have also to give to him that needs. Jacob, the shepherd, has good red pottage to spare, when Esau, a sportsman, is ready to perish for hunger. A further description of the liberty and livelihood of the wild ass we have, v. 7, 8. (1.) He has no owner, nor will he be in subjection: He scorns the multitude of the city. If they attempt to take him, and in order to that surround him with a multitude, he will soon get clear of them, and the crying of the driver is nothing to him. He laughs at those that live in the tumult and bustle of cities (so bishop Patrick), thinking himself happier in the wilderness; and opinion is the rate of things. (2.) Having no owner, he has no feeder, nor is any provision made for him, but he must shift for himself: The range of the mountains is his pasture, and a bare pasture it is; there he searches after here and there a green thing, as he can find it and pick it up; whereas the labouring asses have green things in plenty, without their searching for them. From the untameableness of this and other creatures we may infer how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot give law even to a wild ass's colt.

III. The unicorn-rhem, a strong creature (Num. 23:22), a stately proud creature, Ps. 112:10. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God here challenges Job to force him to it. Job expected every thing should be just as he would have it. "Since thou dost pretend" (says God) "to bring every thing beneath thy sway, begin with the unicorn, and try thy skill upon him. Now that thy oxen and asses are all gone, try whether he will be willing to serve thee in their stead (v. 9) and whether he will be content with the provision thou usedst to make for them: Will he abide by thy crib? No;" 1. "Thou canst not tame him, nor bind him with his band, nor set him to draw the harrow," v. 10. There are creatures that are willing to serve man, that seem to take a pleasure in serving him, and to have a love for their masters; but there are such as will never be brought to serve him, which is the effect of sin. Man has revolted from his subjection to his Maker, and is therefore justly punished with the revolt of the inferior creatures from their subjection to him; and yet, as an instance of God's good-will to man, there are some that are still serviceable to him. Though the wild bull (which some think is meant here by the unicorn) will not serve him, nor submit to his hand in the furrows, yet there are tame bullocks that will, and other animals that are not ferae naturae-of a wild nature, in whom man may have a property, for whom he provides, and to whose service he is entitled. Lord, what is man, that thou art thus mindful of him? 2. "Thou darest not trust him; though his strength is great, yet thou wilt not leave thy labour to him, as thou dost with thy asses or oxen, which a little child may lead or drive, leaving to them all the pains. Thou wilt never depend upon the wild bull, as likely to come to thy harvest-work, much less to go through it, to bring home thy seed and gather it into thy barn," v. 11, 12. And, because he will not serve about the corn, he is not so well fed as the tame ox, whose mouth was not to be muzzled in treading out the corn; but therefore he will not draw the plough, because he that made him never designed him for it. A disposition to labour is as much the gift of God as an ability for it; and 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; for, as among beasts, so among men, those may justly be reckoned wild and abandoned to the deserts who have no mind either to take pains or to do good.

Links

Job 39 Commentaries: Barnes • Clarke • Darby • Gill • Geneva • Guzik • JFB • Keil / Delitzsch • KJV Translators' • Henry's Concise • Matthew Henry • Scofield • TSK • Wesley

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New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

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