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.
Job 39
Common English Bible
Mountain goat and doe
39 Do you know when mountain goats give birth;
do you observe the birthing of does?
2 Can you count the months of pregnancy;
do you know when they give birth?
3 They crouch, split open for their young,
send forth their offspring.
4 Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country,
leave and never return.
Wild donkey
5 Who freed the wild donkey,
loosed the ropes of the onager
6 to whom I gave the desert as home,
his dwelling place in the salt flats?
7 He laughs at the clamor of the town,
doesn’t hear the driver’s shout,
8 searches the hills for food
and seeks any green sprout.
Wild ox
9 Will the wild ox agree to be your slave,
or will it spend the night in your crib?
10 Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row;
will it plow the valley behind you?
11 Will you trust it because its strength is great
so that you can leave your work to it?
12 Can you rely on it to bring back your grain
to gather into your threshing floor?
Ostrich
13 The ostrich’s wings flap joyously,
but her wings and plumage are like a stork.
14 She leaves her eggs on the earth,
lets them warm in the dust,
15 then forgets that a foot may crush them
or a wild animal trample them.
16 She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers,
without worrying that her labor might be in vain;
17 God didn’t endow her with sense,
didn’t give her some good sense.
18 When she flaps her wings high,
she laughs at horse and rider.
Horse
19 Did you give strength to the horse,
clothe his neck with a mane,
20 cause him to leap like a locust,
his majestic snorting, a fright?
21 He[a] paws in the valley, prances proudly,
charges at battle weapons,
22 laughs at fear, unafraid.
He doesn’t turn away from the sword;
23 a quiver of arrows flies by him,
flashing spear and dagger.
24 Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground;
can’t stand still at a trumpet’s blast.
25 At a trumpet’s sound, he says, “Aha!”
smells the battle from afar,
hears[b] officers’ shouting and the battle cry.
Hawk and eagle
26 Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies,
spreading its wings to the south?
27 Or at your command does the eagle soar,
the vulture build a nest on high?
28 They dwell on an outcropping of rock,
their fortress on rock’s edge.
29 From there they search for food;
their eyes notice it from afar,
30 and their young lap up blood;
where carcasses lie, there they are.
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