Job 39

In Job 38, God begins speaking to Job out of the whirlwind. After questioning him about the earth, the sea, and the heavens, God closes chapter 38 by asking about providing food for the lion and the raven. Chapter 39 continues that line of questioning, naming wild animals and birds one by one and asking, in effect, "Do you know?" and "Can you do it?" The speech continues through Job 40:2.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: God asks whether Job knows when the wild goats and the hinds give birth. Their young grow up in the open country and then go their way.
• Verses 5–8: The wild donkey, set free by God, lives in the salt land and the wilderness. It scorns the tumult of the city and the shouts of the driver.
• Verses 9–12: God asks whether Job can tie the wild ox in a stall, make it plow a field, or have it haul in the grain.
• Verses 13–18: The ostrich leaves its eggs in the sand and treats its young harshly. The text says this is because God did not give the ostrich wisdom. Yet when the ostrich runs, it scorns the horse and its rider.
• Verses 19–25: The warhorse is described. It laughs at fear, does not turn back from the sword, and charges forward at the sound of the trumpet.
• Verses 26–30: God asks whether it is by Job's wisdom or command that the hawk flies toward the south and the eagle builds its nest on a high crag.

Key Verses

• Job 39:1 "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?": This verse introduces the chapter's characteristic mode of questioning, which shows that God knows the seasons of nature that human beings do not.
• Job 39:19 "Hast thou given the horse strength?": This verse, which asks whether the horse's strength and majesty come from God, begins the longest description in the chapter.
• Job 39:30 "Where the slain are, there is she": This verse is often cited alongside a similar expression in the New Testament.

Characters and Places

• God: The speaker throughout the chapter, who poses questions to Job.
• Job: The listener, who does not respond in this chapter.
• No specific place names appear. The setting, however, consists of uninhabited places such as the open country, the salt land, the mountains, the valleys, and the cliffs.

Points for Reflection

• God's speech does not directly explain why Job suffered, and interpretations therefore differ. Some read it as a speech meant to make Job recognize the limits of human knowledge and power; others read it as a revelation of God's providence, which extends even to wild animals beyond human reach, and of the order of the created world.
• The "wild ox" in verse 9 translates the Hebrew word re'em. The King James Version is known to have rendered this word as "unicorn."
• Some suggest that the Hebrew word translated "eagle" in verses 26–30 may refer to the carrion-eating vulture.
• Many interpreters read the description of the ostrich in verses 13–18 as a poetic rendering of what ancient observers saw.
• The wording of verse 30 resembles Jesus' saying, "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew 24:28; Luke 17:37). For this reason, the two passages are sometimes read together.