Job 39
Living Bible
39 “Do you know how mountain goats give birth? Have you ever seen them giving birth to their young? 2-3 Do you know how many months of pregnancy they have before they bow themselves to give birth to their young and carry their burden no longer? 4 Their young grow up in the open field, then leave their parents and return to them no more.
5 “Who makes the wild donkeys wild? 6 I have placed them in the wilderness and given them salt plains to live in. 7 For they hate the noise of the city and want no drivers shouting at them! 8 The mountain ranges are their pastureland; there they search for every blade of grass.
9 “Will the wild ox be your happy servant? Will he stay beside your feeding crib? 10 Can you use a wild ox to plow with? Will he pull the harrow for you? 11 Because he is so strong, will you trust him? Will you let him decide where to work? 12 Can you send him out to bring in the grain from the threshing floor?
13 “The ostrich flaps her wings grandly but has no true motherly love. 14 She lays her eggs on top of the earth, to warm them in the dust. 15 She forgets that someone may step on them and crush them, or the wild animals destroy them. 16 She ignores her young as though they weren’t her own and is unconcerned though they die, 17 for God has deprived her of wisdom. 18 But whenever she jumps up to run, she passes the swiftest horse with its rider.
19 “Have you given the horse strength or clothed his neck with a quivering mane? 20 Have you made him able to leap forward like a locust? His majestic snorting is something to hear! 21-23 He paws the earth and rejoices in his strength, and when he goes to war, he is unafraid and does not run away though the arrows rattle against him, or the flashing spear and javelin. 24 Fiercely he paws the ground and rushes forward into battle when the trumpet blows. 25 At the sound of the bugle he shouts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle when far away. He rejoices at the shouts of battle and the roar of the captain’s commands.
26 “Do you know how a hawk soars and spreads her wings to the south? 27 Is it at your command that the eagle rises high upon the cliffs to make her nest? 28 She lives upon the cliffs, making her home in her mountain fortress. 29 From there she spies her prey, from a very great distance. 30 Her nestlings gulp down blood, for she goes wherever the slain are.”
Job 39
The Message
39 1-4 “Do you know the month when mountain goats give birth?
Have you ever watched a doe bear her fawn?
Do you know how many months she is pregnant?
Do you know the season of her delivery,
when she crouches down and drops her offspring?
Her young ones flourish and are soon on their own;
they leave and don’t come back.
5-8 “Who do you think set the wild donkey free,
opened the corral gates and let him go?
I gave him the whole wilderness to roam in,
the rolling plains and wide-open places.
He laughs at his city cousins, who are harnessed and harried.
He’s oblivious to the cries of teamsters.
He grazes freely through the hills,
nibbling anything that’s green.
9-12 “Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you,
volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo
and getting him to till your fields?
He’s hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him,
would you dare turn the job over to him?
You wouldn’t for a minute depend on him, would you,
to do what you said when you said it?
13-18 “The ostrich flaps her wings futilely—
all those beautiful feathers, but useless!
She lays her eggs on the hard ground,
leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to the weather,
Not caring that they might get stepped on and cracked
or trampled by some wild animal.
She’s negligent with her young, as if they weren’t even hers.
She cares nothing about anything.
She wasn’t created very smart, that’s for sure,
wasn’t given her share of good sense.
But when she runs, oh, how she runs,
laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.
19-25 “Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess
and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
Did you create him to prance proudly
and strike terror with his royal snorts?
He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited,
then charges into the fray.
He laughs at danger, fearless,
doesn’t shy away from the sword.
The banging and clanging
of quiver and lance don’t faze him.
He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast
races off at a gallop.
At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily,
smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off,
catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.
26-30 “Was it through your know-how that the hawk learned to fly,
soaring effortlessly on thermal updrafts?
Did you command the eagle’s flight,
and teach her to build her nest in the heights,
Perfectly at home on the high cliff face,
invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?
From her perch she searches for prey,
spies it at a great distance.
Her young gorge themselves on carrion;
wherever there’s a roadkill, you’ll see her circling.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson