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.
Job 39
EasyEnglish Bible
God continues to ask Job questions[a]
39 ‘Job, do you know that time when the goats on the mountains give birth?
Do you watch the wild deer when their babies are born?
2 Can you count the number of months that these animals are pregnant?
How long must they wait until they give birth?
3 They bend down low to the ground.
They give birth to the babies that they have carried inside them.
4 The young animals grow
and they become strong in the fields.
Then they leave their parents
and they do not return to them.
5 Did you send out the wild donkeys
to go wherever they want?
6 No! It was me who gave them the desert as their home.
I let them live in places where the ground has salt.
7 They stay far away from the busy cities.
They do not allow anyone to make them work.
8 Instead, they live on the hills,
where they find fresh plants to eat.
9 Can you tell a wild ox to work for you?
No! At night, it will not stay to feed at your farm.
10 It will not let you tie it to a plough.
It will not agree to prepare your fields in the valleys.
11 A wild ox is very strong.
But you cannot trust it to help you with your difficult work.
12 It will not help you to bring in your harvest of grain.
It will not take the grain to your threshing floor.
13 When an ostrich is happy,
it waves its wings.
But it cannot use its wings to fly,
as a stork can do.
14 A mother ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground.
She lets the sand cause them to be warm.
15 She does not realize that people or wild animals
might break the eggs with their feet.
16 She does not take care of her babies,
as if they did not belong to her.
She does not worry that all her work might be useless.
17 This is because I did not give wisdom to ostriches.
I did not give them minds that understand things.
18 But when an ostrich begins to run,
it can run very fast.
It can run faster than a horse
and someone who rides on it.
19 Did you, Job, give horses their strength?
Did you give them the long hair that they have on their necks?
20 You did not make horses able to jump like locusts.
They frighten people when they blow air out through their noses.
21 They stamp their feet on the ground,
as they prepare to go to a battle.
They are ready to go and attack the enemy.
22 A horse is brave and it is not afraid of anything.
It does not run away from the enemy's weapons.
23 The soldier who is riding it
has his arrows ready at the horse's side.
Swords and spears shine brightly in the sun.
24 The horse shakes with joy
as it runs to the battle.
When the battle trumpet makes its noise,
the horse wants to run even faster![b]
25 When it hears the sound of the trumpet,
it makes a happy noise.
From far away, it recognizes the smell of the battle.
It hears the army officers as they shout their commands.
26 Was it your wisdom, Job, that taught hawks how to fly?
No! You could not teach them to fly towards the south in winter.
27 Do eagles wait for your command
to fly high into the sky?
No! You could not teach them how to build their nests
high up in the mountains.
28 They live among the highest rocks.
That is where they stay at night.
They are safe on the sharp rocks.
29 From the high rocks,
eagles look for their food.
They see small animals far away,
that they can catch and eat.
30 They come together around the bodies of dead animals.
The young eagles drink the blood.’
Footnotes
- 39:1 God continues to ask Job questions. He knows that Job must answer ‘No’ to these questions. Job does not know everything about all the animals that God has made and how they live. God is showing Job that he, God, is the one who knows about all these things. So God knows what is good and right.
- 39:24 A soldier would make a noise with a trumpet when the battle was ready to start. Then all the soldiers would know that it was the time for them to attack their enemy.
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