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.”
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Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International