Job 39
International Standard Version
On the Birth of Young
39 “Do you know when the mountain goat gives birth?
Do you watch the doe as it calves its young?
2 Can you count the months of their gestation?
Do you know the time when they give birth,
3 when they crouch down[a] to give birth[b] to their offspring,
and let go[c] of their birth pangs?
4 Their young are strong;
they grow up in the open field;
then they go off
and don’t return to them.”
On Wild Animals
5 “Who sets the wild donkey free?
Who loosens the bonds of the wild donkey
6 to whom I’ve given the Arabah[d] for a home;
the salt plain for his dwelling place?
7 He despises city noises;[e]
he ignores the shouts[f] of the driver.
8 He ranges the mountains that are his pasture
to search for anything green.
9 Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
Will he sleep at night near your feeding trough?
10 Can you bind the ox to plow a furrow with a rope?
Will he harrow after you in the valley?
11 Will you trust him because of his great strength
and entrust your labor to him?
12 Will you trust him that he’ll bring in your grain,
and gather it to your threshing floor?”
On the Ostrich
13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyously,
but aren’t its pinions and feathers like the stork?
14 She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand,
15 but she forgets that a foot might crush them
or any wild animal might trample them.
16 She mistreats her young as though they’re not hers,
and she has no fear that her labor may be in vain,
17 because God didn’t grant her wisdom
and never gave her understanding.
18 And yet when she gets ready to run,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.”
On the Horse
19 Do you instill the horse with strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
20 Can you make him leap like the locust,
and make the splendor of his snorting terrifying?
21 He paws the ground[g] in the valley
and rejoices in his strength;
he goes out to face weapons.
22 He scoffs at fear
and is never scared;
he never retreats from a sword.
23 A quiver of arrows rattles against his side,
along with a flashing spear and a lance.
24 Leaping in his excitement, he takes in[h] the ground;
he cannot stand still when the trumpets sound!
25 When the trumpet blasts he’ll neigh, ‘Aha! Aha!’
From a distance he can sense war,
the war cry of generals,[i] and their shouting.”
On Raptors
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk flies,
spreading its wings toward the south?
27 Does the eagle soar high at your command[j]
and build its nest on the highest crags?
28 He dwells on the crags where he makes his home,
there on the rocky crag is his stronghold.
29 From there he searches for prey,
and his eyes recognize it from a distance.
30 His young ones feast[k] on blood;
he’ll be found wherever there’s a carcass.”[l]
Footnotes
- Job 39:3 Or bow down
- Job 39:3 Lit. cleave open
- Job 39:3 Lit. send
- Job 39:6 I.e. the desert wilderness of southern Israel
- Job 39:7 Or sound
- Job 39:7 Or noise
- Job 39:21 The Heb. lacks the ground
- Job 39:24 Lit. swallows
- Job 39:25 Or officers
- Job 39:27 Lit. mouth
- Job 39:30 Lit. suck up
- Job 39:30 Or slain
Job 39
Easy-to-Read Version
39 “Do you know when the mountain goats are born?
Do you watch when the mother deer gives birth?
2 Do you know how many months they must carry their babies?
Do you know when it is the right time for them to be born?
3 These animals lie down, they feel their birth pains,
and their babies are born.
4 Their babies grow strong out in the wild.
Then they leave their mothers and never come back.
5 “Who let the wild donkeys go free?
Who untied their ropes and let them loose?
6 I let the wild donkey have the desert for a home.
I gave the salt lands to them for a place to live.
7 They are happy to be away from the noise of the city.
They never have to listen to their drivers shouting at them.
8 They live in the mountains.
That is their pasture.
That is where they look for food to eat.
9 “Will a wild bull agree to serve you?
Will he stay in your barn at night?
10 Will he let you put ropes on him
to plow your fields?
11 A wild bull is very strong,
but can you trust him to do your work?
12 Can you trust him to gather your grain
and bring it to your threshing place?
13 “An ostrich gets excited and flaps its wings, but it cannot fly.
Its wings and feathers are not like the wings of a stork.
14 An ostrich lays her eggs on the ground
and lets the sand keep them warm.
15 The ostrich forgets that someone might step on her eggs
or that a wild animal might break them.
16 An ostrich leaves her little babies.
She treats them as if they were not her own.
If her babies die, she does not care that all her work was for nothing.
17 That’s because I did not give wisdom to the ostrich.
She is foolish, and I made her that way.
18 But when the ostrich gets up to run, she laughs at the horse and its rider,
because she can run faster than any horse.
19 “Did you give the horse its strength?
Did you put the mane[a] on its neck?
20 Did you make it able to jump like a locust
or snort[b] so loudly that it scares people?
21 A horse is happy to be so strong.
It scratches the ground with its foot and runs into battle.
22 It laughs at fear; nothing makes it afraid!
It does not run away from battle.
23 The soldier’s quiver shakes on the horse’s side.
The spear and weapons its rider carries shine in the sun.
24 The horse gets very excited and races over the ground.[c]
When it hears the trumpet blow, it cannot stand still.
25 When the trumpet sounds, it snorts, ‘Hurray!’
It can smell the battle from far away
and hear the shouts of commanders with all the other sounds of battle.
26 “Did you teach the hawk how to spread its wings and fly south[d]?
27 Are you the one who told the eagle[e] to fly high into the sky?
Did you tell it to build its nest high in the mountains?
28 It lives high on a peak at the top of a cliff.
That is its fortress.
29 From there it looks far into the distance,
searching for its food.
30 The eagles gather around dead bodies,
and their young eat the blood.”
Job 39
New English Translation
39 “Are you acquainted with the way[a]
the mountain goats[b] give birth?
Do you watch as the wild deer give birth to their young?
2 Do you count the months they must fulfill,
and do you know the time they give birth?[c]
3 They crouch, they bear[d] their young,
they bring forth the offspring they have carried.[e]
4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open;[f]
they go off, and do not return to them.
5 Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who released the bonds of the donkey,
6 to whom I appointed the arid rift valley[g] for its home,
the salt wastes as its dwelling place?
7 It scorns the tumult in the town;
it does not hear the shouts of a driver.[h]
8 It ranges the hills as its pasture,
and searches after every green plant.
9 Is the wild ox willing to be your servant?
Will it spend the night at your feeding trough?
10 Can you bind the wild ox[i] to a furrow with its rope,
will it till the valleys, following after you?
11 Will you rely on it because its strength is great?
Will you commit[j] your labor to it?
12 Can you count[k] on it to bring in[l] your grain,[m]
and gather the grain[n] to your threshing floor?[o]
13 [p] “The wings of the ostrich[q] flap with joy,[r]
but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork?[s]
14 For she leaves[t] her eggs on the ground,
and lets them be warmed on the soil.
15 She forgets that a foot might crush them,
or that a wild animal[u] might trample them.
16 She is harsh[v] with her young,
as if they were not hers;
she is unconcerned about the uselessness of her labor.
17 For God deprived her of wisdom,
and did not impart understanding to her.
18 But as soon as she springs up,[w]
she laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 “Do you give the horse its strength?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?[x]
20 Do you make it leap[y] like a locust?
Its proud neighing[z] is terrifying!
21 It[aa] paws the ground in the valley,[ab]
exulting mightily,[ac]
it goes out to meet the weapons.
22 It laughs at fear and is not dismayed;
it does not shy away from the sword.
23 On it the quiver rattles;
the lance and javelin[ad] flash.
24 In excitement and impatience it consumes the ground;[ae]
it cannot stand still[af] when the trumpet is blown.
25 At the sound of the trumpet, it says, ‘Aha!’
And from a distance it catches the scent of battle,
the thunderous shouting of commanders,
and the battle cries.
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,[ag]
and spreads its wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command[ah] that the eagle soars,
and builds its nest on high?
28 It lives on a rock and spends the night there,
on a rocky crag[ai] and a fortress.[aj]
29 From there it spots[ak] its prey,[al]
its eyes gaze intently from a distance.
30 And its young ones devour the blood,
and where the dead carcasses[am] are,
there it is.”
Footnotes
- Job 39:1 tn The text uses the infinitive as the object: “do you know the giving birth of?”
- Job 39:1 tn Or “ibex.”
- Job 39:2 tn Here the infinitive is again a substantive: “the time of their giving birth.”
- Job 39:3 tc The Hebrew verb used here means “to cleave,” and this would not have the object “their young.” Olshausen and others after him change the ח (khet) to ט (tet) and get a verb “to drop,” meaning “drop [= give birth to] young” as used in Job 21:10. G. R. Driver holds out for the MT, arguing it is an idiom, “to breach the womb” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 92-93).
- Job 39:3 tn Heb “they cast forth their labor pains.” This word usually means “birth pangs” but here can mean what caused the pains (metonymy of effect). This fits better with the parallelism, and the verb (“cast forth”). The words “their offspring” are supplied in the translation for clarity; direct objects were often omitted when clear from the context, although English expects them to be included.
- Job 39:4 tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.
- Job 39:6 tn See the note at Job 24:5.
- Job 39:7 sn The animal is happier in open countryside than in a busy town, and on its own rather than being driven by a herdsman.
- Job 39:10 tn Some commentators think that the addition of the “wild ox” here is a copyist’s error, making the stich too long. They therefore delete it. Also, binding an animal to the furrow with ropes is unusual. So with a slight emendation Kissane came up with “Will you bind him with a halter of cord?” While the MT is unusual, the sense is understandable, and no changes, even slight ones, are absolutely necessary.
- Job 39:11 tn Heb “leave.”
- Job 39:12 tn The word is normally translated “believe” in the Bible. The idea is that of considering something dependable and acting on it. The idea of reliability is found also in the Niphal stem usages.
- Job 39:12 tc There is a textual problem here: יָשׁוּב (yashuv) is the Kethib, meaning “[that] he will return”; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) is the Qere, meaning “that he will bring in.” This is the preferred reading, since the object follows it. For commentators who think the line too unbalanced for this, the object is moved to the second colon, and the reading “returns” is taken for the first. But the MT is perfectly clear as it stands.
- Job 39:12 tn Heb “your seed”; this must be interpreted figuratively for what the seed produces.
- Job 39:12 tn Heb “gather it”; the referent (the grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Job 39:12 tn Simply, the MT has “and your threshing floor gather.” The “threshing floor” has to be an adverbial accusative of place.
- Job 39:13 tc This whole section on the ostrich is not included in the LXX. Many feel it is an interpolation and should therefore be deleted. The pattern of the chapter changes from the questions being asked to observations being made.
- Job 39:13 tn The word occurs only here and means “shrill cries.” If the MT is correct, this is a poetic name for the ostrich (see Lam 4:3).
- Job 39:13 tn Many proposals have been made here. The MT has a verb, “exult.” Strahan had “flap joyously,” a rendering followed by the NIV. The RSV uses “wave proudly.”
- Job 39:13 tn The point of this statement would be that the ostrich cannot compare to the stork. But there are many other proposals for this line—just about every commentator has a different explanation for it. Of the three words here, the first means “pinion,” the third “plumage,” and the second probably “stork,” although the LXX has “heron.” The point of this whole section is that the ostrich is totally lacking in parental care, whereas the stork is characterized by it. The Hebrew word for “stork” is the same word for “love”: חֲסִידָה (khasidah), an interpretation followed by the NASB. The most likely reading is “or are they the pinions and plumage of the stork?” The ostrich may flap about, but cannot fly and does not care for its young.
- Job 39:14 tn The meaning may have the connotation of “lays; places,” rather than simply abandoning (see M. Dahood, “The Root ʿzb II in Job,” JBL 78 [1959]: 307f.).
- Job 39:15 tn Heb “an animal of the field.”
- Job 39:16 sn This verb, “to deal harshly; to harden; to treat cruelly,” is used for hardening the heart elsewhere (see Isa 63:17).
- Job 39:18 tn The colon poses a slight problem here. The literal meaning of the Hebrew verb translated “springs up” (i.e., “lifts herself on high”) might suggest flight. But some of the proposals involve a reading about readying herself to run.
- Job 39:19 tn The second half of the verse contains this hapax legomenon, which is usually connected with the word רַעְמָה (raʿmah, “thunder”). A. B. Davidson thought it referred to the quivering of the neck rather than the mane. Gray thought the sound and not the movement was the point. But without better evidence, a reading that has “quivering mane” may not be far off the mark. But it may be simplest to translate it “mane” and assume that the idea of “quivering” is part of the meaning.
- Job 39:20 sn The same ideas are found in Joel 2:4. The leaping motion is compared to the galloping of the horse.
- Job 39:20 tn The word could mean “snorting” as well (see Jer 8:16). It comes from the root “to blow.” If the horse is running and breathing hard, this could be the sense here.
- Job 39:21 tc The Hebrew text has a plural verb, “they paw.” For consistency and for stylistic reasons this is translated as a singular.
- Job 39:21 tn The armies would prepare for battles that were usually fought in the valleys, and so the horse was ready to charge. But in Ugaritic the word ʿmk means “force” as well as “valley.” The idea of “force” would fit the parallelism here well (see M. Dahood, “Value of Ugaritic for textual criticism,” Bib 40 [1959]: 166).
- Job 39:21 tn Or “in strength.”
- Job 39:23 tn This may be the scimitar (see G. Molin, “What is a kidon?” JSS 1 [1956]: 334-37).
- Job 39:24 tn “Swallow the ground” is a metaphor for the horse’s running. Gray renders the line: “quivering and excited he dashes into the fray.”
- Job 39:24 tn The use of אָמַן (ʾaman) in the Hiphil in this place is unique. Such a form would normally mean “to believe.” But its basic etymological meaning comes through here. The verb means “to be firm; to be reliable; to be dependable.” The causative here would mean “to make firm” or “to stand firm.”
- Job 39:26 tn This word occurs only here. It is connected to “pinions” in v. 13. Dhorme suggests “clad with feathers,” but the line suggests more the use of the wings.
- Job 39:27 tn Heb “your mouth.”
- Job 39:28 tn Heb “upon the tooth of a rock.”
- Job 39:28 tn The word could be taken as the predicate, but because of the conjunction it seems to be adding another description of the place of its nest.
- Job 39:29 tn The word means “search,” but can be used for a wide range of matters, including spying.
- Job 39:29 tn Heb “food.”
- Job 39:30 tn The word חֲלָלִים (khalalim) designates someone who is fatally wounded, literally the “pierced one,” meaning anyone or thing that dies a violent death.
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