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
Lexham English Bible
39 “Do you know the time when the goats of the rocks give birth?
Do you observe the doe deer’s giving birth?
2 Can you number the months they fulfill,
and do you know the time of its giving birth?
3 When they crouch, they bring forth their young ones;
they get rid of their labor pains.[a]
4 Their young ones grow strong; they grow up in the open;
they go forth and do not return to them.
5 “Who has sent forth the wild ass free?
And who has released the wild donkey’s bonds,
6 to which I have given the wilderness as its house
and the salt flat as its dwelling place?
7 It scorns the city’s turmoil;
it does not hear the driver’s shouts.
8 It explores the mountains as its pasture
and searches after every kind of green plant.
9 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you,
or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?
10 Can you tie the wild ox with its rope to a furrow,
or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11 Can you trust it because its strength is great,
or will you hand your labor over to it?
12 Can you rely on it that it will return your grain
and that it will gather it to your threshing floor?
13 “The wings[b] of the female ostrich flap[c]—
are they[d] the pinions of the stork or[e] the falcon?
14 Indeed, it leaves its eggs to the earth,
and it lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 and it forgets that a foot might crush an egg,[f]
and a wild animal[g] might trample it.[h]
16 It deals cruelly with its young ones, as if they were not its own,
as if without fear that its labor were in vain,
17 because God made it forget wisdom,
and he did not give it a share in understanding.
18 When it spreads its wings aloft,[i]
it laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 “Do you give power to the horse?
Do you clothe its neck with a mane?
20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
The majesty of its snorting is terrifying.
21 They paw in the valley, and it exults with strength;
it goes out to meet the battle.
22 It laughs at danger and is not dismayed,
and it does not turn back from before[j] the sword.
23 Upon it the quiver rattles
along with the flash of the spear and the short sword.
24 With roar and rage it races over the ground,[k]
and it cannot stand still at the sound of the horn.
25 Whenever[l] a horn sounds, it says, ‘Aha!’
And it smells the battle from a distance—
the thunder of the commanders and the war cry.
26 “Does the hawk soar by your wisdom?
Does it spread its wings to the south?
27 Or does the eagle fly high at your command
and construct its nest high?
28 It lives on the rock and spends the night
on the rock point and the mountain stronghold.[m]
29 From there it spies out the prey;
its eyes look from far away.
30 And its young ones lick blood greedily,
and where the dead carcasses are, there they are.”
Footnotes
- Job 39:3 Or “deliver their fetuses”
- Job 39:13 Hebrew “wing”
- Job 39:13 Or “flaps”
- Job 39:13 Or “if,” or “or”
- Job 39:13 Hebrew “and”
- Job 39:15 Hebrew “it”; or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14
- Job 39:15 Literally “an animal of the field”
- Job 39:15 Or a collective singular (“them”) referring to “eggs” in v. 14
- Job 39:18 Literally “in the height”
- Job 39:22 Literally “from faces of”
- Job 39:24 Or “it paws the ground”; literally “it swallows the earth/ground”
- Job 39:25 Literally “At enough”
- Job 39:28 Literally “on the tooth of the rock and the stronghold”
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