Job · chapter 39 of 42
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In Job 39 the Lord continues his speech from the whirlwind and surveys the animal world: the mountain goat and deer at birth, the wild donkey free in the wilderness, the wild ox that will not be tamed, the ostrich of strange wisdom, the warhorse, the hawk and the eagle. Each animal shows that God cares for what man neither controls nor understands.
After the questions about the cosmos in chapter 38, the Lord turns to wild life. Job 39 does not ask Job to explain anything: it simply leads him to look at creatures that live where he cannot go and do not answer to his will. The message is that God sustains a world far larger and more mysterious than Job's experience.
The Lord asks Job whether he knows when the mountain goats give birth and whether he observes the calving of the does. Does he number the months they fulfill, does he know when they give birth? They crouch, bring forth their young and are free of their pains; their young thrive, grow up in the open and go out and do not return to them (vv. 1-4).
Then he asks who has let the wild donkey go free and loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, to whom he gave the desert for a home and the salt land for a dwelling. He laughs at the tumult of the city and does not hear the shouts of the driver; he ranges the mountains as his pasture and searches after every green thing (vv. 5-8). Will the wild ox be willing to serve you or spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great and will you leave your labor to him (vv. 9-12)?
The Lord speaks next of the ostrich, who flaps her wings joyfully and leaves her eggs on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them; she treats her young harshly because God made her forget wisdom and gave her no share of understanding. But when she rouses herself to run, she laughs at the horse and his rider (vv. 13-18). Did you give the horse his might? Did you clothe his neck with a mane? He paws in the valley, exults in his strength and goes out to meet the weapons; he laughs at fear and does not turn back from the sword. When the trumpet sounds he says: Aha! (vv. 19-25). Finally, does the hawk soar by your understanding, or does the eagle mount up at your command and make his nest on high? From there he spies out the food, and his young ones suck up blood; where the slain are, there he is (vv. 26-30).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord asks whether Job knows when the mountain goats give birth. He refers to animals no one tends or watches, which God knows one by one. If he cares for what no one sees, Job can trust he is not forgotten.
The Lord asks who let the wild donkey go free. The freedom of this animal, which serves no one and lives in the desert, shows that God values what man does not domesticate or use.
The ostrich lacks wisdom because God gave her no understanding, yet she laughs at the horse and rider when she runs. God has made creatures with different strengths and limits, and he sustains them all with wisdom.
The Lord asks whether the hawk soars by Job's understanding or the eagle mounts up at his command. Birds of prey live at heights man cannot reach, showing that the world does not revolve around Job.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The mountain goat and the deer, whose birth man does not observe. — Job 39:1-4
Answer: In the desert, with the salt land for a dwelling. — Job 39:5-6
Answer: Whether he will serve Job, spend the night at his manger or plow behind him. — Job 39:9-12
Answer: God made her forget wisdom and gave her no share of understanding. — Job 39:17
Answer: He does not turn back from the sword, and when the trumpet sounds he says: Aha! — Job 39:22-25
Answer: On high, on the rock and the crag. — Job 39:27-28
Job 39 invites us to recognize how little we control. Each animal lives by a wisdom God gave it and that man does not govern. In a small group, this chapter can help us rest: we do not need to understand or direct everything for the world to work, because God sustains it.
It also teaches us to look at creation with respect and to care for it. If God cares about the wild donkey and the eagle, we have much to be thankful for and to look after. And for the one who suffers, it is a quiet promise: he who looks after what no one sees does not forget his children.
Job 39 ends with the eagle and its prey, the image farthest from Job. In chapter 40 the Lord will invite him to respond, and Job will answer with humility.
Because it shows that God made creatures with different traits and that not everything follows human logic. Even the ostrich, which seems careless with her young, runs at a speed that shames the horse. God's wisdom is wider than our expectations.
The Hebrew word names a wild bull or aurochs, now extinct, of great strength. Some translations call it a wild ox, others a wild bull or unicorn. What matters is that it cannot be domesticated.
It does not explain his pain, but it shows him that God cares for what is unseen and sustains a world of mystery. Job learns to see his life as part of something larger under the Creator's care.