1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you watched the deer in labor?
2 Can you count the months they are pregnant
so you can know the time they give birth?
3 They crouch down to give birth to their young;
they deliver their newborn.
4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field.
They leave and do not return.
5 Who set the wild donkey free?
Who released the swift donkey from its harness?
6 I made the desert t its home,
and the salty u wasteland its dwelling.
7 It scoffs at the noise of the village
and never hears the shouts of a driver. v
8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland,
searching for anything green.
9 Would the wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
10 Can you hold the wild ox w to a furrow by its harness?
Will it plow the valleys behind you?
11 Can you depend on it because its strength is great?
Would you leave it to do your hard work?
12 Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?
13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s? ,x
14 She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand.
15 She forgets that a foot may crush them
or that some wild animal may trample them.
16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
17 For God has deprived her of wisdom;
he has not endowed her with understanding. y
18 When she proudly spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.
19 Do you give strength to the horse?
Do you adorn his neck with a mane?
20 Do you make him leap like a locust?
His proud snorting fills one with terror.
21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength;
he charges into battle.
22 He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing;
he does not run from the sword.
23 A quiver rattles at his side,
along with a flashing spear and a javelin.
24 He charges ahead with trembling rage;
he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.
25 When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly.
He smells the battle from a distance;
he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.
26 Does the hawk take flight by your understanding
and spread its wings to the south?
27 Does the eagle soar at your command
and make its nest z on high?
28 It lives on a cliff where it spends the night;
its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
29 From there it searches for prey; a
its eyes penetrate the distance.
30 Its brood gulps down blood,
and where the slain are, it is there. b
39:1–4. Chapter 39 continues the focus on the animal world. All the animals that God cites live beyond the control of humans. Most are totally wild, and even the warhorse (39:19–25) is tamed only partially. There is much going on in God’s world that escapes the notice of humans, so these aspects of his purpose do not hinge on human interests.
39:5–8. It is evident from God’s questions about the wild donkey that he has set this animal free from human control (39:5). It is skillful in surviving in the wasteland, even thriving where humans rarely venture (39:6). It avoids the commotion and confinement of town life, happy to keep away from humans (39:7). This independence comes at a cost, because the wild donkey must forage for food in the barren wilderness (39:8).
39:9–12. The wild ox, or aurochs, is now extinct, but in the OT it is a familiar image for strength (e.g., Dt 33:17; Ps 92:10). Its power and remoteness caused it to be the prize game for royal hunts in ancient Egypt. It might have been seen as a great potential resource for plowing and transportation, but it would not surrender its freedom for a life of domesticated labor (39:9–10). From the human perspective, this was a rich energy source going for naught, but that is how the aurochs functioned within God’s world (39:11–12). Once again, Job has to realize that life as God has designed it does not revolve around human concerns.
39:13–18. God’s description of the ostrich reveals a bird that seems so bent on inefficiency that it makes us laugh. The mother ostrich lays her eggs in the sand, which can place her young at risk (39:14–15; cf. Lm 4:3). She is easily distracted, so she appears to neglect her young (39:16), although this could also be construed as a strategy to draw predators away from them. The ostrich has not been given wisdom or good sense by God (39:17), for reasons that only he knows. It does, however, have great speed, which enables it to run away from a horse (39:18). The apparent inefficiency of the ostrich is a contrast to the tidy system of retribution theology, in which everything in life is explained in simple, logical terms.
39:19–25. God paints a magnificent word picture of an awesome warhorse. This is the one animal in this section that is not wild, but even it is terrifying to behold (39:20). In the heat of conflict, the warhorse is not completely mastered by its rider, because it can become reckless in its eagerness for battle (39:24–25; cf. Jr 8:6). Humans can harness only in part the power that God has given to this animal.
39:26–30. These verses features the hawk and the eagle, which soar far above the domain of humans. No human, like Job, has taught them to fly, but rather their superb ability comes from God (39:26). They live in inaccessible places that humans cannot approach (39:28), and no human can tell them when to fly or where to nest (39:27). They demonstrate that there is much in God’s design for the world that humans do not know or control.